Page 56 – Silica bodies

Page 56 – Silica bodies

c. 1940

Fig. 49 . Silica bodies. Surface views of the abaxial epidermis of the basal portion of a fully differentiated leaf to show the silica bodies one of which occurs in each epidermal cell. Notice, in A, how the silica bodies stand out as bright spheres aligned in fairly regular rows except surrounding the trichome bases, t, t. B shows the highly refractive quality and verrucose surface of the silica bodies. Sinuated walls of the epidermal cells are faintly visible; the walls of one cell are traced with ink to show an epidermal cell more clearly. A, X200; B, X800.