530 JOHNSON. [Vol. VIII. 



coincide with the very distinct spindle-fibres. The spindle is 

 enormously large (length, \6\x) for the size of the resting micro- 

 nucleus (Fig. 55). It is considerably larger than the spindle 

 formed at time of fission. 



In conjugates at a late stage and in ex-conjugates, spherical, 

 translucent, unstainable bodies are found, varying in size from 

 8ju, to I2/A. (Figs. 57, 58.) These are undoubtedly the anlagen 

 of new meganuclei. Their behavior towards staining reagents 

 is very characteristic, for I have not noticed the least tendency 

 to take a stain with picro-carmine or Czokor's alum cochineal. 

 This is in perfect accordance with the observations of Gruber 

 ('87), Maupas ('89), and R. Hertwig ('89). The unstainability of 

 the meganucleus during its evolution is due either to an 

 absence of chromatin, or to a chemical change in it ; the latter 

 seems the more probable, for both in the micronuclear state 

 and in the condition of a fully-developed meganucleus these 

 bodies contain abundant, highly-stainable chromatin. 



The general appearance presented by the nuclear structures 

 of two gametes in Stage H is shown in Fig. 52. The separated 

 nodes of the old meganucleus have not as yet undergone (in 

 this particular example) any perceptible alteration of structure 

 or loss of affinity for stains. Numerous micronuclei are 

 present, distributed throughout the cytoplasm. They are much 

 enlarged beyond the minute dimensions they have in the 

 resting state (compare Figs. 55 and 56), and stain less deeply. 

 They have a somewhat granular structure, with occasionally a 

 suggestion of chromatic threads (Fig. 56). Besides micronuclei, 

 the anlagen of new meganuclei are found (lugii.^) — m. this 

 instance as in some others, of very different size in the two 

 gametes. Although, according to Balbiani's observations ('61, 

 '92) only a single meganucleus develops in each gamete, I have 

 observed that several often pass through the early stages of the 

 evolution. We must, therefore, assume that the superfluous 

 ones are absorbed by the cytoplasm, and so only one reaches 

 the final stages of development. 



Still other structures found at this stage are micronuclei 

 within vesicles two or three times their diameter. (Fig. 52, 

 lower gamete. Fig. 59.) These I agree with Maupas in 



