Septate Fibres in Angiosperms and their Length

Abstract

RECENTLY, Govindarajalu and Swamy1 have reported that the septate fibres are longer than the non-septate fibres in the secondary xylem of Pithecolobium dulce Benth. Since this is the first record of the difference between the length of septate and non-septate fibres in a wood, one is likely to get the impression that what has been found in P. dulce is true for all the Dicotyledons; but this is not so. In the course of our investigation, during the past five years, on septate fibres of Angiosperms, we find that in a large number of species there is little difference in length of these two types of fibres. Only in a few cases are septate fibres found to be either shorter or longer than non-septate fibres (Table 1).