91 



Of these five embryosacs the central one has not yet pro- 

 ceeded to develop and consequently contains but one nucleus 

 while all the other ones have allready undergone further develop- 

 ment and therefore have formed a number of nuclei. It is 

 further noticed that one of the embryosacs, the lower right 

 one, has grown quicker than any of the others and conse- 

 quently has allready begun to compress one of them, so that 

 we may safely assume that this will be the surviving one, 

 while all the other ones will gradually become suppressed. 



The peculiar consequences of the pushing aside of the non- 

 surviving embryosacs can frequently give rise to very per- 

 plexing figures. Let us therefore look at some of the images 

 obtained in the course of the investigation. In fig. 30 PI. V, 

 we find three embryosacs one of which has been pushed aside 

 in front, a state of affairs which continues to exist at a much 

 later age, as is seen from fig. 29 PL IV. 



More curious are pictures like those obtained in fig. 32, 

 where, after having removed the protoplasm by the aid of 

 chloral hydrate, two small embryosacs are seen lying sym- 

 metrically near the top of the larger one. Such a case becomes 

 queerer yet, when the pollentube (blue in fig. 33 PL V), has 

 entered the large embryosac passing on its way between the 

 two small ones. Though these two small embryosacs are lying 

 in a plane above that of the larger one, the appearance is 

 exactly that of three embryosacs lying in the same plane. The 

 situation becomes perplexing when a case occurs like that seen 

 in fig. 36 PL V where 4 reduced embryosacs are seen lying 

 at the tip of the adult one, viz. two symmetrically to the left 

 and right of the median line and two in the median line itself. 

 Before one knows that the blue cell at the top is the pollen- 

 tube, the picture is perplexing in the extreme; especially when 

 the two small embryosacs of the median line are absent. The 

 first explanation put on it was a parallel to the Angiosperms. 

 The pollentube was taken to be the egg apparatus, the two 

 rudimentary embryosacs, left and right, to be the synergidae 

 and the prothallium in the large embryosac to be the antipodal 



