The structural organization of plant protoplasm in the light of micrurgy

Summary

Micro-surgery of plant cells shows that the impression of fluidity which one gets from mere microscopic observation is illusory. The cytoplasm in fact is always more or less elastic, even when “streaming”. Moreover only a portion of its substance moves, so that there is no inherent difficulty in assuming a structural basis of organization.

The resting nucleus, also, is not devoid of structure, as is claimed to be the case in animal cells. Sometimes a gelatinous framework is conspicuous, and such a condition grades into cases where there appears to be only a flimsy structure permeating a liquid medium. There thus seems to be no reason, as far as plant cells are concerned, for denying the existence of a persistent framework which might account for the genetic continuity of the chromosomes.

In the architectural organization of the cell the most important element, apart from the immobile gelatinous matrix, is the active film- and fibril-forming differentiation whichStrasburger termed the “Kinoplasm”. Its behaviour and metamorphoses, as observed by the writer, support and amplifyStrasburger's conception and indicate that the analogy it presents with the myelin forms of lecithin may rest on chemical and structural similarity.