59 
both factors. Most authors who have made special study of the 
subject agree on ascribing to the antipodals a nutritive func- 
tion (WestermaiER 1892, Ikepa 1902, Lorscuzr 1905, Huss 1906). 
Their losing this function leads to desintegration and finally to 
total omission. This, of course does not hold for the lower polar 
nucleus. Still this nucleus may be suppressed too, which shows 
that the process of shortening the sex-generation is at work 
as well. 
At the micropylar end the nuclei, once formed, usually per- 
sist. They have all got a special function. The occasional sup- 
pression of one or two of these nuclei therefore must be con- 
sidered as a result of the shortening of the n-generation. This 
conception explains why reduction in the number of megaspores 
and in the number of chalazal nuclei is more common than in 
the number of micropylar nuclei. The development of the mi- 
cropylar group is affected by one reducing factor only, while 
in megaspore-formation and chalazal development two factors 
are at work. 
An increase in the number of chalazal nuclei, on the other 
hand, safely can be ascribed to a more intensive nutritive func- 
tion. This view is supported by Campsezy’s (1899a, 1899b) state- 
ment about the occasional increase after fertilization and in 
relation to the nourishing of the embryo. 
VIL. ABNORMAL SACS WHICH SHOULD FAIL TO FOLLOW 
THE OUTLINED SYSTEM. 
We have to mention here some literature about embryosacs, 
showing special anomalies not in keeping with the results ot 
the present study. 
First of all Campsetz’s publications on Aglaonema commuta- 
tum (1900, 1903, 1912) and on Nephthytis liberica (1905). We 
have already cited these cases in our general review. The irre- 
gularities are doubtless pathological and caused by the abnor- 
mal conditions under which the material was grown (in green- 
houses). Especially the many multiple fusions strongly remind us 
of Nimzc’s studies on the influence of external circumstances 
on nuclear division and nuclear fusions. 
