Several microcrystalline celluloses prepared from viscose staple, bagasse, ramie, and cotton were evaluated by viscosimetry, X-ray diffraction, and scanning and transmission electron microscopies. The-changes in crystallinity, size of crystallites, grain-size distribution, morphological features, and degree of polymerization were found to be dependent on and greatly limited by the polymorphic conformations of cellulose. These changes were more conspicuous in cellulose II than in cellulose I. The coexistence of a two-phase system still remains in all the specimens of microcrystalline cellulase powders. Combining the findings with respect to the extent of the changes in the size of crystallites, it appears inevitable that recrystallization in some of the defective crystallites and degradation in the disordered areas of cellulose occurs simultaneously in the preliminary hydrolysis process during the production of microcrystalline cellulose.