It has been assumed by many involved in freeze-etch or freeze-fracture studies that it would be useless to etch specimens which were cryoprotected by more than 15% glycerol. We presumed that the amount of cryoprotective material exposed at the surface would serve as a contaminating layer and prevent the visualization of fine details. Recent unexpected freeze-etch results indicated that it would be useful to compare complementary replicas in which one-half of the frozen-fractured specimen would be shadowed and replicated immediately after fracturing whereas the complement would be etched at -98°C for 1 to 10 minutes before being shadowed and replicated.Standard complementary replica holders (Steere, 1973) with hinges removed were used for this study. Specimens consisting of unfixed virus-infected plant tissue infiltrated with 0.05 M phosphate buffer or distilled water were used without cryoprotectant. Some were permitted to settle through gradients to the desired concentrations of different cryoprotectants.