A handbook of plant tissue culture

1943·10.2 MB·English

by  White, Philip R. (Philip Rodney), 1901-

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A HANDBOOK OF PLANT
TISSUE CULTURE
BY
PHILIP R. WHITE, A.B., Ph.D.
THE JAQUES CATTELL PRESS
LANCASTER, PENNSYLVANIA
1943
Copyright, 1943, by
The Jaques Cattell Press
PRINTED IN U. S. A.
THE SCIENCE PRESS PRINTING COMPANY
LANCASTER, PENNSYLVANIA
«
DEDICATION
to Henry K. White, to whom I owe a certain
curiosity about the workings of nature and whose
first lessons in scientific thinking and procedure
are the foundation upon which all of my work has
since been built,
to Mary P. White, to whom I owe patience and
perseverance and what humility I may claim, to
carry through the tasks at hand,
to Caroline D. White, whose inspiration and
constant help have supported me at many a diffi-
cult pass, and
to little Christopher John and Jonathan Peter
for whom, after all, all things in heaven and earth
are done,
this little volume is humbly dedicated.
"Entia non sunt multiplicand! praeter
necessitatem"
Wm. of Occam, 1270-1349.
PEEFACE
The writing of any book, and particularly one
in a new and special field, should, in these days of
stress and in the presence of an already stagger-
ing plethora of publication, be a matter for very
serious consideration. Books are written to be
read, and unless one has at least a potential public
one shouldhesitate long and seriously about bring-
ing out a new volume. Yet the history of Science
has been from the first a history of methods, either
experimental methods or methods of thought.
When, therefore, a new method or a new applica-
tion of older methods is developed, it behooves
those who are responsible for its development to
consider carefully when it has progressed far
enough beyond adolescence to warrant a formal
introduction in society.
Tissue Culture as a branch of animal biology
has long since passed that stage and has received
extended attention in the handbooks of Fischer,
Erdmann, Willmer, Ephrussi, Parker, and others.
Many of these handbooks carry titles conveying
the impression that they treat the subject in its
entirety. Yet it is in vain that one searches their
pages for any but the briefest possible treatment
of the cultivation of plant tissues. One might
vi Preface
assume that the animal biologists had a strict
monopoly on the method. This is, of course, not
at all a fair picture. It is with the conviction that
Tissue Culture is, in fact, the domain of all biolo-
gists and that Plant Tissue Culture has, in the last
decade, developed to the point where it deserves
and even demands consideration as a separate,
valid, useful, and promising, if not yet fully ma-
ture, discipline, that I have undertaken the prepa-
ration of this little volume.
Having decided that the time is ripe for publi-
cation in a new field, an author must then deter-
mine the scope of his subject, the type of reader
he wishes to reach, and the degree of detail which
it is valuable to present. I have planned this book
as an aid to those who may actually make use of
—
the technique students, investigators in other
fields for whom the methods presented may be
useful in the solution of their own problems, and
perhaps a very few who may approach the subject
for its own sake. With this in mind, I have tried
to keep the presentation as simple and concise as
seemed compatible with completeness and lucidity
and have used, wherever possible, photographs
and drawings in place of long descriptions. I
have not attempted an inclusive survey of the field
in all its past and present ramifications but have
concentrated on those matters which may suggest
to the student new fields of conquest and provide
him with the basic information and the techniques