Studies on the Fine Structure of Plant Cell Walls I

On the Fibrillar System of Full Matured Cotton Hair

Abstract

1. The cell walls of the full matured cotton seed hairs were chemically purified and dispersed by the ultrasonics. The structure of the cellulose fibrillar system of the cell walls treated with the above procedure, has deen observed under the light microscope and electron microscope.
2. The cellulose fibrillar system is formed by the unit of cellulose fibrillar bundle One cotton fiber has many segments constructed by 2 or 4 collaterally situated cellulose fibrillar bundles having axially parallel orientation.
3. Upper and lower ends of the bundles in each segment represent plumous rami fication (Fig. 4 A, B, Fig. 5) which can be easily distinguished from a rope like middle portion (Figs. 2A, B and C).
4. The cellulose fibril has a diameter of 100Å-250Å. The fibrillar bundle has a diameter of ca. 4μ. Full length of the bundle is 100μ-1200μ.
5. One pair of the fibrillar bundles in each segment situated in lateral symmetry or dorsiventral symmetry, but in the case of 2 pairs, the 2 lateral pairs are situated in dorsivental symmetry (Figs. 1A, B and C).