1904] MERRIMAN: VEGETATIVE CELL DIVISION 201 
Meves (17) describes vesicular chromosomes occurring in 
Paludina. The peculiar behavior of these chromosomes in their 
relation with the centrosomes makes it difficult to draw any 
analogies with the conditions found in Allium. 
The interpretations which I have made do not refute what is 
a fairly well established fact, that in the rapidly dividing cells of 
meristematic tissue the daughter nuclei in the late anaphase often 
proceed to divide without the intervention of a resting stage or 
the formation of a nuclear membrane. It only reasserts, what 
Flemming (1) and other investigators have held, that the chro- 
matin undergoes after the metaphase the same changes as before 
the metaphase, but in the reverse order. The history of the 
chromatin in cell divison can be characterized as made up of 
periods of growth, aggregation, and fusion, followed by periods 
of separation, disintegration, and reduction. 
The literature now remains for consideration which bears 
upon the shape of the chromosomes and the manner of their 
separation. 
Ishikawa (7) studied division in the epidermal cells of 
Allium buds. He found that coil to break up into sixteen pairs 
of chromosomes, generally of an equal length. 
Belajeff (6) stated that in vegetative cell divisions, while the 
daughter chromosomes are yet bound to each other at their ends, 
a rhomboidal figure is formed. The U-forming daughter seg- 
ments move apart and form daughter stars, one at each pole of 
the nuclear spindle. Belajeff maintains that this U-shape of 
the chromosomes is characteristic and peculiar to vegetative cell 
divisions, and that in the heterotypical form of division there 
are V-, Y-, and X-shaped figures which show longer and shorter’ 
arms, 
Hof (11) finds that the chromosomes in the stage of the 
mother star in vegetative cell division have mostly the figure of 
J-forming threads, with arms of unequal length, although rhom- 
boidal figures also occur. : 
Strasburger (14) criticises Belajeff’s characterization of the 
three types of nuclear division based upon the form of the 
chromosomes. Neither the manner of insertion of the chromo- 
