218 SUMMAEY OF QUERENT RESEAKCHES RELATING TO 



plant in the processes which take place before fertilisation. After the 

 first division of the large primary nucleus of the embryo-sac, the two 

 daughter-nuclei remain close together, and after the next division, the 

 four resulting nuclei are arranged at equal distances from each other. 

 This stage is followed by one with eight nuclei, arranged equally about 

 the periphery of the sac, which is completely tilled with granular cyto- 

 plasm without the usual central vacuole. JS'o traee could be detected of 

 the polarity usually characteristic of the embryo-sac, nor is there any 

 sign of a definite egg-apparatus, of antipodals, or of polar nuclei. About 

 this time the central vacuole is formed, and soon after another nuclear 

 division takes place, resulting in sixteen free nuclei, distributed equally 

 about the periphery of the sac in the rather thick cytoplasmic layer. 



Filaments in the Protoplasm of the Mother-cell of the Embryo- 

 sac.* — In several species of Liliace;e — Fritillaria imperialism Lilium 

 candidum, L. tigrinum, L. Martagon, Tidipa sylvestris — MM. M. and P. 

 Bouin find, in the cytoplasm of the embryo-sac mother-cell, at the time 

 when this cell is three or four times as large as the adjacent cells of the 

 nucellus, a fibrillar network which eagerly takes up staining snbstauces. 

 From this are differentiated, during the further development of the cell, 

 separate fibrillse, which are at first distributed irregularly through the 

 cytoplasm, but subsequently assume definite positions with respect to 

 the nucleus. In the pole facing the micropyle they are often collected 

 radially round the nucleus ; the equatorial plane of the cell becomes soon 

 free from them ; they accumulate, on one hand in the micropylar region, 

 on the other hand in the chalazal region of the elongated mother-cell of 

 the embryo-sac. At these poles the fibrillas coalesce into a homogeneous 

 body, and then break up and become diffused through the cytoplasm. 

 These structures have nothing to do with the kinoplasm, and the author 

 proposes to call them ergastoplasm, a name given by Garnier to similar 

 structures in the gland-cells of the higher Vertebrata. He believes them 

 to be connected with the production of substances which are used up in 

 the subsequent division-processes. 



Cellulose-Bands in the Embryo-sac of Pedicularis.f — The occur- 

 rence has long been known of peculiar strands of cellulose in the em- 

 bryo-sac of Pedicularis palustris and sylvatica. Kerr Tischler has traced 

 their development from filaments of protoplasm. They occur at the 

 micropylar end of the embryo-sac, in peculiar narrow blind-gut-like 

 processes ; this portion of the sac having been, before their formation, 

 filled with starch. The protoplasmic strands are at first simple, but 

 subsequently anastomose with one another ; they are of a granular 

 structure. The nucleus of the extended portion is much larger than 

 those of the surrounding cells of the integument. It subsequently 

 breaks up, and ultimately disappears. The conversion into cellulose is 

 preceded by a fusion of the protoplasm granules. The cellulose-strands 

 resemble those found by Buscalioni $ in Veronica hedersefolia and 

 Plantago lanceolata, but are not surrounded by a cementing substance. 



* Bibliographie anatomique, vi. (1898) 10 pp. aod 5 figs. See Bot. Centralbl., 

 lxxx. (1899) p. 225. 



t Ber. Kbnigsberg. Oecon. Gesell., 1899, 18 pp. See Bot. Centralbl., lxxx. 

 (1899; p. 390. J Of. this Journal, 1894, pp. 225, 589. 



