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Plant tissues that conduct foods made in the leaves to all other parts of the plant. Phloem is composed of several types of specialized cells, including sieve-tube cells and phloem fibers. Sieve tubes (columns of sieve-tube cells), which have perforated areas in their walls, provide the main channels in which food substances travel. Phloem fibers are long, flexible cells that make up the soft fibers used commercially (e.g., flax and hemp).
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In Egyptian religion, a goddess worshiped first as a lioness and later as a cat. Her ferocious nature changed after the domestication of the cat circa 1500 BCE. She had cults at Bubastis in the Nile delta and at Memphis. In the Late and Ptolemaic periods, large cemeteries of mummified cats were created at both sites, and thousands of bronze statuettes of the goddess were deposited as votive offerings. Bastet is represented as a lioness or a woman with a cat's head, usually holding a bag, a breastplate, and a sistrum (wire rattle). The Romans carried her cult to Italy.
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