35 
Ila, IIIa, IV, V) two of the chalazal nuclei are seen functioning 
as polars and even fusing. 
Besides the reduction just mentioned there is still another 
way by which the number might decrease. Antipodals very 
seldom survive the fertilization stage. Often however they begin 
desintegrating long before the sac has reached its full-grown 
stage. This of course is to be considered as an anticipation 
without much interest from a morphological point of view. For 
completeness’ sake all possibilities on this line are reviewed 
in figure 8. The same indicating letters are used as for the 
corresponding embryosacs of fig. 7; a Greek letter is added to 
indicate whether one, two or three nuclei are affected by early 
degeneration. : 
The antipodals have not acquired special functions like the 
nuclei of the egg-apparatus. Ordinarily the chalazal group is 
formed by two simultaneous divisions. For these reasons a num- 
ber of three chalazal nuclei is not very probable. As a matter 
of fact no instances could be found of the types 2b (fig. 7) and 
2a, 2a@ and 2bz (fig. 8). 
Representatives of the various types are presented in a table 
on the following page. 
An increase in the number of antipodal nuclei is very com- 
mon too. This increase, however, seems to be of secondary origin 
for it is caused by a development of an original number 
of three nuclei. Most probably it is connected with special nu- 
tritive functions of the antipodal apparatus and is of no interest 
from a phylogenetical point of view. A complete list of all 
cases in which the number of antipodals surpasses the usual 
number of three is given by SAMUELS (1912 p. 100). 
