FISHER: SEED DEVELOPMENT IN PEPEROMIA Zoi 
to plants which for other reasons are known to be primitive. The 
sixteen-nucleate sacs, which have almost certainly arisen from four 
megaspores, are distributed among four families of dicotyledonous 
plants, the Piperaceae, the Haloragidaceae, the Penaeaceae, and 
the Euphorbiaceae, none of which except the first has been con- 
sidered primitive. 
The eight-nucleate embryo sacs, which have arisen from four 
megaspores or their morphological equivalents, are found in widely 
separated families of both monocotyledonous and dicotyledonous 
plants. They occur in Typha (Typhaceae) according to Schaffner 
(61), in Lemna (Lemnaceae) according to Caldwell (8), in Lilium 
(Liliaceae) according to Coulter (12), in Epipactis (Orchidaceae) 
according to Brown & Sharp (5), in Piper (Piperaceae) according 
to Johnson (32, 35), in Salix (Salicaceae) according to Chamber- 
lain (11), in Juglans (Juglandaceae) according to Karsten (38), in 
Avicennia (Verbenaceae) according to Treub (77), and in Aphyllon 
(Orobanchaceae) according to Miss Smith (67). 
While it may be doubted whether the embryo sac is the product 
of four megaspores or their morphological equivalents in all cases 
mentioned above, it certainly can not be doubted in cases like 
Epipactis (Brown & Sharp, 5) and Smilacina (McAllister, 45). 
(2) In none of the heterosporous plants below the Angiosperms 
is the gametophyte known to be the product of the fusion of four 
germinating megaspores. 
The endosperm nucleus of Peperomia in its origin from several 
nuclei shows a derived rather than a primitive condition, for 
nothing of this kind is found in other Angiosperms which are 
considered primitive, or in the heterosporous plants below the 
Angiosperms. 
The endosperm of Peperomia, which is cellular from the start, 
exhibits in this condition a feature which is secondary rather than 
a characteristic that is primitive among Angiosperms. 
The primary archesporial cell, which is single in Peperomia, 
Tepresents a less primitive condition, according to Kérnicke (40), 
an the multicellular archesporium which is found very much 
more commonly among the more primitive of the Dicotyledons 
than among the higher groups. The evidence for this view has 
also been briefly reviewed by Coulter & Chamberlain (14, p. 60). 
