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The stems of woody plants have an outer layer called bark. Bark contains layers of dead cells called cork.

Plant cells have a non-living cell wall surrounding the living contents (cytoplasm, nucleus etc). The cells walls of the cork cells contain a waxy material called suberin. This is waterproof and so reduces the loss of water from the stem.

However suberin also prevents the cork cells from obtaining water, so the living contents of the cells die and disintegrate, leaving the empty cell walls.

So, when Hooke observed cork cells they were empty because they had lost their living contents and all he was seeing were the cell walls.

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