Preface 



LIBRARY 



MASS. X^, 



THE STRUCTURAL features of cellulose and of the substances associated 

 with it have been the subject of much intensive study for at least 

 thirty years and have given rise to a literature now so enormous that 

 it is difficult even for the expert to keep up with it. From time to time 

 various sections of this study have been reviewed in text-books, but a 

 good deal is still available only in the original papers. In particular no 

 text -book has yet appeared in English confined to those aspects of wall 

 studies of greatest appeal to botanists, and the growing demand for 

 such an account has stimulated me to write the present book. 



I have made no serious attempt to cover the ground already so 

 adequately surveyed in a number of texts. The methods and results of 

 physico-chemical investigations of cellulose have already been pre- 

 sented in a series of excellent treatises, and the most recent book by 

 Frey-Wyssling has already laid down the basis of the botanical approach. 

 Nevertheless there remains much that is of importance still not pre- 

 sented, and a good deal of information has already become available 

 even in the short time which has elapsed since Frey-Wyssling's book 

 appeared. 



Since the present book is written, however, chiefly for botanists, it 

 has been necessary to present in the first few chapters a brief and, it is 

 feared, wholly inadequate resume of the more important physical and 

 chemical approaches to cellulose structure. At the same time it is 

 hoped that it may prove of interest also to physical scientists and, 

 though no specific reference is made to any of the obvious technological 

 connections, also to fibre technologists; and for this reason some 

 explanatory account is also given of the anatomy and development of 

 the tissues under review. The rest of the book is concerned with the 

 detailed architecture of cell walls in a wide variety of plants, including 

 growing cells, and an attempt is made to interpret growth processes in 

 terms of the structure thus revealed. 



A good deal of the work described in these later chapters has been 

 performed in my laboratory and I have not hesitated to draw on the 

 latest work of my colleagues to whom I owe a very great debt of 

 gratitude. I would particularly mention Dr. M. Middlebrook and 

 Dr. M. F. E. Nicolai, who are still with me, and Dr. K. Singh, now at 

 Dehra Dun, India, and Dr. A. B. Wardrop, now in the Forest Products 



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