Texas Journal of Microscopy - Texas Society for Microscopy

Figure 2. Prince Valiant fights for his life and possibly King
Solomon’s gold. Adapted from Hal Foster’s Prince Valiant by
Gianni and Schultz, 2006.
I am a long time devotee of the comic strip Prince Valiant.
First thing Sunday morning I look for it in the paper. Other
comic strips do not interest me, but somehow, when I was
young “Prince Valiant” captured my imagination. All of the
panels are extremely well done, in fact, each is like a piece of
fine art. The colors are rich and the characters are robust. The
artist(s) utilize different size panels rather than the traditional
four used in many comic strips. Sometimes they use only a single
very large panel. These panel size changes add character
to the strip. The drawings always exhibit a great feeling for
perspective and a fantastic sense of reality. The story line is
continuous and moves slowly; one “episode” may take several
weeks. Prince Valiant in the days of King Arthur, © King Features
Syndicate, was originally written by Hal Foster (no relation
to Adriance Foster) starting in 1937 and over the years was
illustrated by a number of artists. It is now written and drawn
by Gary Gianni and Mark Schultz as Hal Foster’s Prince Valiant.
Some of you will say this paragraph is interesting but
completely immaterial. However, there is a connection! On
Sunday three weeks after starting Part IV, and tentatively deciding
that I could relate “my crystal trail” to the events in the
novel King Solomon’s Mines, I found Prince Valiant enmeshed
in a fight for King Solomon’s Treasure (Fig. 2). Whether it was
a fluke, a twist of fate, or coincidence I took it as a sign! It gave
me confidence that I was on the right trail. In November and
December of 2006 “the coin of Solomon” and King Solomon
himself, returned to the plot of Prince Valiant.
THE CRYSTAL TRAIL
Crystals of CaOx in plants will be the first stop on the trail.
From there the trail goes in diverse directions (Plates 2, 3). Perhaps
the crystal trail is more like a web since it led to the study
of algae, plants, fungi, vertebrates, plant and insect viruses and
finally, believe it or not, to wood.
The crystal research described
here involves my own work and
joint studies with students, seasoned
investigators, a housewife
and even a detective. In many
ways the “webbiness” of this
trail came from the influence
of Dr. Frederick G. E. Pautard,
the friendly Englishman (Fig 3).
Soon after I met him in the middle
60’s, we became both friends
and research associates. Fred
was trained in biophysics in the
Astbury Lab at Leeds University.
He was a persistent fisherman
at home or abroad; a bon vivant,
and an original “multitasker.” But
above all he was always a “ruthless
intellectual.” In many ways,
the “webbiness” also derives
Figure 3. F.G.E. Pautard in
the snow at Davos, Switzerland,
1965.
from Gordon Whaley, who, I believe, moved in the background
in many ways to expand my research life. As you will see later,
Fred Pautard, Kenneth Smith and Colin Nicol were all “pawns” in
Whaley’s pastime of local edification. I will recount these stories
in a chronological manner, with occasional flashbacks, as in King
Solomon’s Mines. The chief members of my crystal trail safari
were: Adriance Foster (UC Berkeley); Fred Pautard, Kenneth
Smith, Colin Nicol (UT Austin and U of South Florida); Mary
Alice Webb (UT Arlington and Purdue U). There were others
but these five “carried the load” just as the porters did for Quatermain.
I will introduce each of them as we go along the trail.
To embark on “The Crystal Trail,” first I want to recall an
incident in the life of Adriance S. Foster. In 955 he gave the
retiring president’s address at the annual banquet of the American
Botanical Society held at Michigan State University. His address
was entitled, “Plant Idioblasts: Remarkable Examples of
Cell Specialization” (Foster, 956). A note at the beginning of
the published version of his address says, “Dr. Foster’s address
was illustrated with a series of excellent slides of mixed botanical
and psycho-entomological nature.” His address included pictures
of sclereids and crystal idioblasts much like those we studied in
his plant anatomy class but he also showed cartoons of grasshoppers
with sclereids stuck in their “teeth” hence the editor’s comment.
In 968, well along on my crystal trail, I had the pleasure
of addressing the American Botanical Society in a symposium on
plant idioblasts. My lecture ended with a photograph of Adriance
S. Foster, and naming him the “greatest idioblast of all.” See
Part III for pictures of Foster.
While Foster’s course in plant anatomy was near the beginning
of my crystal trail, the actual start was a study of longitudinal sections
of yucca roots, wherein I found that raphide crystal idioblasts
arise in files (Fig. ). In my dissertation I wrote: “Large numbers
of raphide-containing idioblastic cells occur in the cortex of the
roots of many Yucca species, especially Y. whipplei. They are
found most often in vertical files. Idioblasts develop acropetally
in a zone of cortical cells not far removed from the root apex. As
far as could be ascertained, raphide crystals develop inside the
vacuole. The early development of these crystals occurs in areas
where cell division is still common“. Later, I published a picture
and a short paragraph describing the situation (Arnott, 962) and
set the whole thing aside (“out of sight, out of mind”).
Before leaving UC Berkeley and Adriance Foster’s influence,
here is another anecdote that is pertinent to the crystal trail. As
his Teaching Assistant, he and I often visited the Coke machine
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