A Technique for Measuring Fibril Angle Using Polarized Light

Polarized-light microscopy has been used to measure the fibril angle of plant cell walls. To do this the polarized light must pass through only a single cell wall of a wood fiber. A simplified method has been developed to produce microscope slides of half-fibers (fibers cut in half longitudinally) by maceration of microtomed wood sections. There are certain important variations from the standard methods in mounting the half-fibers on the slides