ENDOSPERM OF UTRICULARIA 13 
are much more firmly united to each other than to the placenta, 
and the whole cap of seeds might be lifted off like a ripe rasp- 
berry. This only confirms their dependence upon the micro- 
pylar haustorium for nutrition and their practical abandon- 
ment of funicular connection with the ovary. 
DISCUSSION 
In the introduction to this paper brief reference was made to 
the general uniformity of events transpiring within the embryo- 
sac of the Angiosperm. In Utricularia the relation of the ovules 
to adjacent parts is such as to make possible departures from 
the typical story, and morphological investigations reveal un- 
usual behavior of both the female gametophyte and the endo- 
sperm. While these pecularities differ only in degree from 
many others frequently noted elsewhere, their prominent ex- 
pression in this plant is made possible through the relations 
here existing between ovule, placenta, and ovary wall. Had 
not the developing seeds been held firmly in place, independent 
of their own attachments, there could have been no micropylar 
haustorium of such pronounced type. Under usual conditions 
such outgrowths are impossible, and even their initiation is gen- 
erally inhibited. 
In considering departures from the typical embryo-sae story 
these haustorial developments, either micropylar or antipodal, 
constitute those most frequently encountered. They have gen- 
erally been interpreted, and probably correctly, as nutritive 
devices of one sort or another. In the large, they represent 
efforts on the part of the contained embryo-sae nuclei to express 
themselves in more marked way than is typically the ease. 
While most of these emergent structures are abortive, some of 
them proliferate considerable distances through contiguous tis- 
sues and constitute striking outgrowths from the embryo-sac. 
Without summarizing here the extensive and well known lit- 
erature on this subject, one might cite typical papers in this 
field. Billings (2, 3) has made a eareful study of nutritive 
outgrowths from embryo-saes, particularly in the Labiate, and 
his figures reveal a striking series in this group; Chamberlain 
(4) found unusual development of the antipodals in certain 
