THEIR SIGNIFICANCE IN HEREDITY. 



365 



are not only six loops at each pole, but also all the six combina- 

 tions of ancestral germ-plasms. 



Perhaps some may be inclined to look upon direct nuclear 

 division as a ' reducing division,' but I believe that such a view 



FIGS. II, III. 



would be incorrect. It is only approximately true that the nuclear 

 thread is divided into two halves of equal quantity by direct 

 division, and exact equality would only happen as it were acci- 

 dentally ; so that we cannot speak of a perfectly equal distribution 

 of the ancestral germ-plasm in the two daughter-nuclei. But the 

 ' reducing division ' must obviously effect an exactly regular and 



