I 



*■ f 



BULLETIN 



. OF THE 



TORREY BOTANICAL CLUB. 



Vol. XVII.] New York, October 9, 1890. [No. 10. 



Notes on the Manner of Growth of the Cell Wall. 



By Emily L. Gregory. 



(riate crx). 



The question of the manner of growth of the cell wall in the 

 vegetable kingdom has not yet been satisfactorily answered. If 

 we accept the theory of Na^gcli in respect to the crystalline form 

 of the micellae composing it, and suppose the first or primary 

 wall to be formed according to the laws governing the arrange- 

 ment of such figures, when lying free in a fluid substance, the 

 question then arises, how does this wall grow in surface and in 

 thickness? Naegeli says in his work on the growth of the starch 

 grain, that before this question can be answered many facts must 

 be observed and registered. 



The object of the present brief paper is to record one or two 

 facts which appear to be connected with this question. It is not 

 expedient therefore to give a resume of the work already done 

 and the facts discovered in this field since the susfGfestion of 



fc.fc> 



Naegeli. An article written by Krabbe in Pringsheim^s Jahrbuch 

 in 1887 contains an account of some very interesting observa- 

 tions and experiments, and in this paper the author claims to have 

 proven one or two points in this connection whicli have hitherto 

 lacked positive demonstration. Without taking space here to re- 

 view this whole article^ which is a long and valuable contribution 



to the literature on this subject, I may be pardoned for repeating 



some parts of it here. 



In the study of stratification and striation in the walls of bast 



and thick-walled libriform cells, Krabbe claims that the observa- 

 tions preceding his own have been made on longitudinal sections, 

 and therefore the results are not always reliable. 



