120 



of Leiden — we read that the japanese Àucuba, intro- 

 duced into Europe for its decorate leaves, only then began 

 to produce the beautiful red berries, when maie individuals 

 were brought over from Japan. And the "Revue horticole" 

 for 1909 makes the statement that the female Aucuba 

 japonica was introduced into Europe about 1783, but no 

 fruits were found till 1860, when maie plants came into 

 european cultivation. 



The following experiments show the absolute necessity 

 of pollination. Out of 300 female flowers, isolated by 

 means of paper bags, not a single fruit was formed. And 

 again, 600 other female flowers, that, had been isolated 

 in the same manner after artiflcial pollination, the great 

 majority produced normal fruits. 



Probably Eichler has come to his opinion about Aucuba 

 through the fruiting of a lonely standing female plant, 

 which occasionally had developed maie flowers. This is 

 suggested by the fact, that the second writer repeatedly 

 has found maie flowers on female stocks. In one case, 

 too, a maie inflorescence with 80 purely maie flowers was 

 met with on a female plant. 



That the reversed might happen, has been found by 

 Lombard^ — Dumas (1904). This author reports maie 

 individuals now and then producing female flowers. 



To confirm thèse observations microscopically, material 

 of Aucuba was fixed and eut. The development of pollen 

 and embryosac ofFers nothing very unusual. The pollen 

 was easily made to germinate in three hours. 



The fact, that Aucuba shows no case of apogamy, is 

 clearly demonstrated by the number of chromosomes in 

 the nuclei of différent tissues. 



In the second division of the embryosac mother cell 

 18 chromosomes were numbered in one case and 17 in 

 another. During the pollen formation the number 18 was 

 found, too, in several instances. The nuclei of root tips 



