SOMATIC CHROMOSOMES IN VICIA. 



INTRODUCTION. 



Before a full understanding of the intricate and significant phenomena 

 of maturation can be approached it is necessary to possess a very accurate 

 knowledge of the events occurring in the relatively simple somatic divisions. 

 With regard to the splitting of the chromosomes, around which center ail 

 the events of karyokinesis, it is obviously of great importance to know at 

 what stage and in what manner it takes place. The majority of récent 

 researches, including the most critical ones, hâve shown that in somatic 

 mitosis the split occurs during the prophase, usually very early. Most con- 

 spicuously opposed to this conclusion are the accounts dealing with Vicia 

 Faba [Lundegârdh (io, 12 a b c), Fraser and Snell (10, 11)], in which 

 the split is held to be a telophasic phenomenon. 



The présent study was undertaken primarily as an inquiry into the 

 cause of this apparent lack of harmony between Vicia and other forms 

 having chromosomes of large or intermediate size. 



MATERIAL AND METHODS. 



The roots were grown in damp sawdust in the laboratory. After three 

 days growth they were fixed at hourly intervais throughout the day in the 

 following solutions. 



C) A preliminary notice of this and other related researches being carried on in the labora- 

 tory of Professer Grégoire has appeared in Comptes Rendus. (Grégoire, V. : La télophase et la 

 prophase dans la caryocinèse somatiqite.) 



