Journal of Applied Microscopy. 251 



CURRENT BOTANICAL LITERATURE. 



Charles J. Chamberlain. 



Books for review and separates of papers on botanical subjects sliould be sent to 



Charles J. Chamberlain, University of Chicago, 



Chicago, 111. 



REVIEWS. 



Wager, H. The Nucleus of the Yeast Plant. This paper is introduced by a review 

 Ann. Bot. 12: 499-543. pl- 29-30, 1898. qJ ^.j^g literature of the subject from the 



time of Nageli up to the present. The writer recommends as a fixing agent a 

 saturated solution of corrosive sublimate, which should be allowed to act for at 

 least twelve hours. Gram's solution of iodine was also of immense value. It 

 should act for twenty-four hours. The material is then washed successively in 

 water, 30 per cent, alcohol, 70 per cent, alcohol and methyl alcohol. A few drops 

 of the alcohol containing the material is placed on a cover, and, when nearly dry, 

 a drop of water is added. After the yeast cells settle, the water is drained off 

 and the cells are allowed to dry up completely. The cover or slide with its layer 

 of cells is then placed in water for a few seconds, after which it is ready for 

 staining. The combination of fuchsin and methyl-green, or fuchsin and methy- 

 lene blue, proved more effective than the carbol-fuchsin recommended by Janssens 

 and Leblanc. The stained cells were mounted whole in glycerine or balsam, 

 but material was also imbedded in paraffine for microtome sections. 



A few of the conclusions are as follows : All yeast cells contain a nuclear 

 apparatus. In the earlier stages of fermentation this consists of a nucleolus, in 

 close contact with a vacuole which contains a chromatin network resembling that 

 of the nuclei of the higher plants. In later stages of fermentation this vacuole 

 may disappear, its place being taken by a granular network. The nucleolus is 

 present in all cells. In the process of budding, the nuclear apparatus does not 

 show any well defined stages in karyokinesis, and the division should probably 

 be regarded as direct. The nucleolus divides either in the neck joining the bud 

 to the parent cell or, more rarely, in the parent cell itself. One of the products 

 of division passes into the bud. Several of the figures in the plates bear at least 

 a superficial resemblance to the dividing nuclei of some of the lowest animals. 



c. J. c. 



„ . „ , ^, Debski has shown, in a previous paper, 



Debski, B. Weitere Beobachtungen an Chara . j • • 



fragilis. Jahrb. f. wiss. Bot. 32 : 636-670. pi. that m Chara there is no reduction in 

 11 and 12, 1898. (.jjg number of chromosomes in any of 



the mitoses leading to formation of the spermatozoid. In the present article 

 he finds that no reduction takes place in the development of the egg-cell. 

 After the breaking down of the nuclear membrane, but before the formation of 

 the spindle, protoplasmic radiations appear around the nuclear cavity. He 

 believes that the spindle is at first multipolar. The cell plate arises from thick- 

 enings of the connecting fibers. In the nuclei of nearly all mature cells there 

 occur in the nucleoli and nuclear network changes which often lead to fragmen- 

 tation. Such cells are no longer capable of division. 



