No abstract

The objectives of this investigation were to find out the remarkable morphological, histological and chemical differences among some wild taxa belong to genus Vicia, i.e., V. narbonensis var. narbonensis , V. narbonensis var. salmonea and V. serratifolia and the cultivated V. faba var. minor.Morphological characters reveal that; V. narbonensis var. narbonensis and V. narbonensis var. salmonea are more or less similar on this respect but differs from V. faba var.minor or V. serratifolia. The latter is very distinguishable from both varieties of V. narbonensis. V. faba var.minor has a unique characters differ from the other taxa.Studying the primary structure of root, stem and leaflet represents the histological differences among the wild taxa. The structure of the tap root (7 days old) presents remarkable differences in the types of vascular cylinder, being a trieach protostele in both varieties of V. narbonensis , tetrarch protostele in V. faba var.minor and pentarch protostele in V. serratifolia.V. serratifolia has the thickest tap root with widest vascular cylinder, which occupies the pith area among the studied taxa. In addition, V. serratifolia has the largest diameters of xylem arms and number of xylem vessels, while phloem area do not differ in other taxa. The morphological results indicate also that the secondary roots are three in both varieties of V. narbonensis, four in V. faba var. minor and five in V. serratifolia.The structure of the major and minor vascular bundles in the second stem internode below the shoot apex show that V.faba var.minor exceed all those of the other wild taxa.The histological structure of the leaflet shows that V. serratifolia has a characteristic property showing the six vascular bundles of leaflet arranged in two rows in the mesophyll, while other wild taxa and V. faba var. minor have one bundle only.Protein and non-protein amino acids results show slightly the same morphological results of taxa under investigation.

Plants of marjoram, basil and sage all of the family Lamiacea were grown during 1998/ 99 season for studying their anatomical features. Results indicated that stem primary structure in the three genera as the stem layout is quadrangular . Cortex showed cells of different types in corners and edges. The procambial ring is well defined with a considerable number of well differentiated and lignified xylem vessels. The phloem is embedded in a sheath -like ring of small polygonal cells. This sheath has smaller cells as compared with those of the contacting cortical layers. The pith is relatively wide as compared to whole stem diameter in marjoram and sage. It comprises round to oval cells with variable size. Stem secondary structure proved that average thickness of the cortex of the three studied genera is relatively thicker. A complete cylinder of well lignified vascular vessels are found in the three genera. As well as, leaf anatomy of the three studied genera shows some differences in their components. Stomata in the three studied genera are anomocytic which comprises no subsidiary cells. Stomata number and size are varied between the upper and lower epidermis of leaf blade and between the three studied genera. Non-glandular uniseriate hairs of varying length with swollen basal cells are commonly found. Glandular hairs are found in the three studied genera. Though, both marjoram and basil showed glandular heads of 4 cells and short stalks, while heads of 8 cells with long stalks are found in sage.