382 KING. [Vou. XIX. 
as are the primary oogonia shown in Fig. 17. The cells of a 
cyst are all descendants of one primary oogonium, and the 
cyst wall is formed evidently by the follicle cells which had 
previously surrounded the parent cell. The secondary oogonia 
are somewhat smaller than the primary oogonia, but they 
closely resemble them otherwise. They have a polymorphic 
nucleus containing a faintly staining reticulum and several 
plasmosomes. In the cytoplasm is a vitelline body (Fig. 18, 
VY) and also a minute centrosome surrounded by a granular 
attraction-sphere (Fig. 18, C). 
The cells of a cyst do not always divide simultaneously, and 
resting cells as well as cells in all stages of division may be 
found in the same cyst (Fig. 19). In the early prophase of 
mitosis a thick spireme is formed, as in the primary oogonia. 
This spireme breaks into segments (Fig. 19, S), presumably 
twenty-four, which condense into V-shaped chromosomes in 
the metaphase (Fig. 19, O). The spindle is the same shape 
as that found in the earlier generations of cells, and there are 
distinct centrosomes at the spindle poles which are devoid of 
any radiation (Fig. 19, O, R). 
IV. THE DEVELOPMENT OF THE OOCYTES TO THE 
SyYNIZESIS STAGE. 
Considerable controversy has arisen among investigators 
regarding the origin of the odcytes in the amphibian ovary 
since, at the period of the transformation of oogonia into 
oocytes, cell and nuclear boundaries are frequently obscured 
and the cyst contents appear as a syncytium. 
In his classic work on Bombinator igneus, Goette (35) 
states that in the young ovary the protoplasmic bodies of the 
central cells of a cyst fuse into a single mass which contains 
at first several separate nuclei; later the nuclei also fuse to 
form the mulberry shaped germinal vesicle of the egg. This 
view has been slightly modified by Bataillon (6), who con- 
cludes, from his observations on Rana and on Bufo, that after 
the fusion of the cytoplasmic bodies of the cells of a cyst one 
