Fig.
10.6-1. Transverse section of fig leaf (Ficus). The thick band
of giant, empty-looking cells is part of a multiple
epidermis. There is a layer of cells that appears to be an epidermis,
but those cells are only part of the total epidermis; both they and the giant
cells are derived from the protoderm. In a uniseriate epidermis, protoderm cells
divide with anticlinal walls only, but in a multiseriate epidermis, protoderm
cells divide in various planes. In species like this in which the outermost
layer looks so much like an epidermis – and the inner layers of giant cells
look so unlike epidermis – developmental studies are necessary to be certain
that it is a multiple epidermis and not just a uniseriate epidermis and an
unusual hypodermis.