IQI5 ] HUTCHINSON— ABIES BALSAMEA 465 



male cell gradually surrounds the conjugating nuclei so that there 

 is never any possibility of mistaking the fusion nucleus for an 

 unfertilized egg nucleus." And Noren (22) states: "Nachdem die 

 Kopulation der Kerne erfilgt ist legt sich das Plasma der Sperma- 

 zelle und deren Starke wie ein Mantel urn die beiden Kerne herum." 

 The description is similar for Taxodium (4), Torreya (15), Sequoia 

 (16), and Thuja (14). In Ephedra (13), a dense cytoplasmic mass 

 develops about the egg nucleus and extends downward in the cyto- 

 plasm of the egg. In Abies a finely granular cytoplasmic layer 

 develops about the egg nucleus during its movement toward the 

 center of the egg (figs. 7, 14). This area extends along the path of 

 the nucleus in the form of a short streamer. The male nucleus 

 penetrates the mantle, but there is no appreciable addition to its 

 mass by cytoplasm accompanying the same (fig. 19). At the telo- 

 phase of the first division, the excess material from the egg cyto- 

 plasm is added to the "mantle" (figs. 49, 50, 55). 



The darkly staining bodies described in Abies as globular or 

 irregularly shaped and vacuolate, according to conditions, have 

 been variously interpreted. Nichols (21) writes: "In the egg 

 nucleus frequently the entire chromatin content of the nucleus 

 seems to have resolved itself into nucleoli and pseudo-nucleoli. 

 Yet even after a study of a large number of preparations one is 

 unable to formulate any satisfactory conclusions as to the nature 

 of these structures." Describing the egg nucleus of Taxodium, 

 Coker (4) says: "In addition to the reticulum and plastin nucleoli 

 there are also present numbers of chromatin nucleoli." And 

 Lawson for Libocedrus (17a) states that "It is impossible to dis- 

 tinguish the true chromatin from the nucleoli and other irregularly 

 shaped bodies which stained like chromatin, and seemed to be 

 closely associated with the latter." These bodies seem to resemble 

 very much the karyosomes which Sharp (24) has described in the 

 resting nuclei of Vicia Faba. "They appear in connection with 

 the chromatic network and resemble the latter in staining quality. 

 They seem to represent an elaboration product of a process actively 

 going on during rest." A study of Abies has led to the conclusion 

 that the darkly staining bodies are storage materials derived from 

 the cytoplasm. 



