Specimens of sapwood and heartwood of green Pinus radiata D. Don were dehydrated in successive changes of ethanol and then embedded in a mixture of methyl and butyl methacrylates. Sections were cut at a thickness of 2 microns, mounted in glycerol and photographed with a Cooke, Troughton and Simms ultraviolet microscope at wavelength 254 nm.It can be seen in Figure that, by comparison with the adjacent and axial tracheids, the ray parenchyma cell walls are non-absorbing to ultraviolet light in the sapwood. In the heartwood (Fig. 2) the ray parenchyma cells walls appear to absorb ultraviolet light as strongly as the adjacent tracheids. From these observations it can be concluded that lignin is absent from the ray parenchyma cell walls of the sapwood. P. radiata belongs to the Diploxylon section of the genus Pinus. These results therefore confirm the observations of Balatinecz and Kennedy (i9 6 ?) * n respect to the absence of lignin from the ray parenchyma cell walls of the sapwood species from this group. The presence in the heartwood of a strongly ultraviolet absorbing material supports the positive tests for lignin obtained by them using standard histological procedures.Kondensationsreaktionen des Lignins Umsetzung von Lignin-Modellsubstanzen mit Resorcin und Salzsäure Zusammenfassung Die Dilignole I, III und VIII reagieren mit Resorcin und n/io HC1 bei 80° C leicht zu Kondensationsprodukten, die je ein Mol Resorcin gebunden enthalten. Die neu gebildete C-C-Bindung geht ausschließlich vom Benzyl-C-Atom des Dilignols aus. In den Dilignolen I und VIII erfolgt zuerst die Spaltung der cyclischen Benzylätherbindungen. Die Bildung von Cumaronstrukturen wird unter den hier gewählten Bedingungen nicht beobachtet. Die Modellversuche zeigen, daß auch im Lignin unter der Einwirkung von Mineralsäuren mit der Bildung von Benzylkationen zu rechnen ist, die für die bekannten Kondensationsreaktionen des Lignins im sauren Milieu verantwortlich zu machen sind.
Condensation Reactions of Lignin Reaction of Lignin Model Compounds with Resorcinol and Hydrochloric Acid SummaryThe dilignols I, III and VIII react easily with resorcinol and n/io HC1 at 80° C to condensation products, each of which contains one mole of resorcinol. The newly formed C-C-bond originates only from the benzyl carbon atom of the dilignol. In the dilignols I and VIII at first a splitting of the cyclic benzyl ether bonds takes place. The formation of cumaron structures is not observed under the chosen conditions. These experiments with model compounds show that the formation of benzyl cations, under the influence of mineral acids, takes place in lignin also. The benzyl cations are very probably responsible for the known condensation reactions of lignin with acids.