■%. \3 ^ *- • 



ne Ohio ^hl^atuialist, 



PUBLISHED BY 



The Biological Club of the Ohio State University 



Volume V. MAY, 1905. No. 7 



TABLE OF CONTENTS 



SCHAFFNER— The Xiiture of the Reduction Division and Kel;Ued Phenomena 33T 



Fischer— A L'st oi Uhio Plants with Compound Leaves 3iO 



York— The Agar-Agar and Paraffin Method for Imbedding Plant Tissues 344 



Cotton — Life History Xotes on A pion nigrum 346- 



CusHMAN — A Few (_)hio Desmids 349 



Jones— Memorial of the Ohio Aeadeniy of Science on the Death of Prof. A. A. ^^■right. . 351 

 Surface— Meeting of the Biological Club 352 



THE NATURE OF THE REDUCTION DIVISION AND RELATED 



PHENOMENA. 



John H. Schaffner. 



It is generally conceded that the primitive plants and animals 

 were nonsexual. In the primordial life of the earth no conjuga- 

 tion of any kind took place. Some organisms have come 

 through all the geological ages in this primitive condition but 

 the great majorit}^ even of the lowest forms have acquired some 

 type of sexuality and retained it while a considerable number 

 have no doubt fallen back from a sexual to a nonsexual condi- 

 tion. If the process of sexual conjugation of cells is then not a 

 primitive property or function of protoplasm various questions 

 naturally suggest themselves. 



1. What caused the original nonsexual forms to develop the 

 sexual process? 



2. What disturbances were introduced in the life cycle of 

 the organism and in the cell activity? 



3. In what ways were the new life cycles established? 



4. How do the life cycles of plants compare with those of 

 animals? 



5. What significance does the reduction division have in the 

 higher forms? 



In most plants conjugation takes place between two naked 

 gametes, and it is probable that such specialized types of sex- 

 uality as are present in the Conjugatae and Phycomycetes orig- 

 inated from the more typical gamete conjugations. We can 

 readily believe that all the Archeophyta were naked cells and 



