Abstract
A series of studies on mitosis in plant endosperm has been initiated, combining various techniques of light microscopy with electron microscopy. The choice of material is the endosperm of the African blood lily Haemanthus katherinae Bak., which has the advantage that it already has been studied in detail with the light microscope, that it can be observed in the living state for long periods before fixation, and it does not have thick cellulose walls which cause difficulties in fixation and embedding for electron microscopy. One of the fixatives which has been found satisfactory for preserving the spindle structure is a solution of one percent osmium tetroxide in 0.2 M sodium acetate, using a slightly acid pH of 6.0 as a stabilizing factor. In this study the evaluation of the fixative was based on qualitative observations in a large number of cells, of the difference in spindle birefringence between living and fixed material, general appearance in phase contrast, and the presence and condition of the mitotic structures at the electron microscope level. Using this fixative, the following observations were made on metaphase cells:
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