SOME PEOBLEMS OF REPRODUCTION. 595 



is the subjective effect of the word on the minds of the 

 writers who have used it in default of a better word. For 

 these reasons I have for some years past never used the word 

 or its derivatives^ save where there actually existed the binary 

 differentiation^ and then I have prefixed the word " binary " 

 to avoid all ambiguity even to myself. As a substitute I have 

 used the terms '^pairing-cells/' ''pairing-" or "fusion-pro- 

 cesses/' etc., for all cases where no binary differentiation was 

 necessarily involved or implied. Butbesides being cumbersome 

 this terminology yields no good derivatives, and hence I ven- 

 ture to propose the term "Synqamy" to replace "fertilisation " 

 in its modern restricted sense, which will be followed, I 

 anticipate, in to - day's discussions ; and the derivative 

 adjectives "syngamic" and "syngamous" follow naturally. 

 The foregoing discussion is not a mere matter of words, but 

 of the clarification of our thought, which is ever dulled and 

 confused by the use of ambiguous or question-begging words, 

 especially when such are the terms used to designate the 

 main objects of our discussions and of our theories. 



It has been suggested that one subject fitly touched upon 

 here would be the function of the centrosome in syngamy. 

 As this organ is as completely absent from Flowering Plants, 

 it can have no import of universal bearing in our general 

 theory ; though it has doubtless a partial bearing in Metazoa, 

 where its presence is common. Since, however, even here 

 the centrosome is of varied origin (intra-nuclear or extra- 

 nuclear), and is seen to be formed anew in the parthenogenetic 

 embryos of Ecliinoderms, its importance must have been much 

 overrated; and we cannot to-day accept the views of those 

 naturalists who have held that the chief function of the sperm 

 is to introduce a centrosome into the egg. 



The most common type of syngamy is " cytogamy," the 

 complete fusion of two cells, the " gametes," cytoplast with 

 cytoplast, nucleus with nucleus, into a 1-nucleate cell, the 

 " oosperm." In the most primitive cases this union takes 

 place completely and directly; but in some the union is delayed 



