288 Phillips on a Comparative Study of the 



tral body only, which often showed clear ends. Fischer 

 suggested that this central body was merely a plasmolized 

 protoplast, and that there really was no central body or 

 nucleus to be seen in the bacteria. 



If we are to accept the doctrine of evolution as a working 

 hypothesis, these so-called "non-nucleated" organisms prob- 

 ably represent the progenitors of the higher plants, or a line 

 of degeneration from them, or their nuclei, on account of 

 the evident differences between them and the nuclei of other 

 plants, may be the carrying out of a different line of devel- 

 opment, though still developing a structure which fulfills the 

 functions of a nucleus. Whichever case it should be, makes 

 very little difference in our present argument. If, as has 

 been largely accepted hitherto, these plants have no nuclei 

 and still exhibit hereditary traits, it would seem to negative 

 the whole theory of heredity as explained by mitotic division. 

 One can hardly believe that the hereditary material would be 

 placed in one structure in the higher plants and in another 

 in the lower, and still be carrying out a line of gradual 

 development, even though evolved along different lines of 

 developmental history. In all other organs, homologies are 

 carried out, and we should expect that if the hereditary 

 material is located in the chromatin in higher plants, it is 

 likely to be found in a similar substance in the lower ones. 

 Accepting the doctrine of gradual development, to what are 

 we to look for the antecedents of the nucleus? It is not 

 probable that it came into existence with all of its mitotic 

 steps, suddenly and de novo. All modern biological 

 research would oppose such a conception. It would seem, 

 then, that we must look for the beginnings of the nucleus 

 in these forms which we have denominated the "non-nucle- 

 ated" organisms, though, of course, through all the time 

 passed since they first came into existence, modifications 

 most likely have occurred and we would scarcely expect to 

 find them just as they were in their early history. 



In the higher plants the nucleus is looked upon as the 



