1907] COKER—CEPHALOTAXUS FORTUNEI 5 
The archegonia of Cephalotaxus vary in number from two to 
five; three is a common number in my preparations. They are 
always situated in the micropylar end of the prothallium and are 
never in contact with each other for any distance and only rarely 
touch each other at any point. They are extremely long in com- 
parison with their width, and are sharply pointed below. The 
usual shape is represented in fig. 12. The one shown in fig. g is 
shorter than usual, The jacket is not nearly so well-developed as 
in some other conifers, and is frequently interrupted by ordinary 
cells (fig. 12). 
According to ARNOLDI there are two neck cells (he mentions no 
exception), but in one case I found as many as five neck cells and in 
‘Several cases three and four, all in one plane. In jig. 6 a neck of 
three cells is shown from above. Occasionally the tip of the arche- 
gonium pushes beyond the neck cells, moving them to one side (jig. 
7). Up to ten or fifteen days before fertilization the archegonia have 
very little protoplasmic contents. The nucleus at this time is small 
and is very close to the upper end. The protoplasm begins to thicken 
rapidly just before the division of the central cell, which occurs about 
ten days before fertilization. The ventral canal nucleus is without 
any distinctive protoplasm of its own, as ARNOLDI has already pointed 
out, resembling in this respect that of Podocarpus (CoKER, 4), Taxo- 
dium (Coker, 5), Cryptomeria (Lawson, 11), Thuja (LAND, 9), and 
Juniperus (NorEN, 15). Miss RoBERTSON found the spindle of the _ 
division in Torreya californica, but no later stages. In fig. 8 is shown 
the ventral nucleus and the egg nucleus soon after the division. The 
former is at the upper surface of the protoplasm. In fig. 9 the canal 
nucleus is shown in its usual position, but there is the curious abnor- 
mality of two other nuclei in the egg. The canal nucleus sometimes 
moves away from the surface and approaches nearer the egg nucleus 
(#g. 10), but this must be considered an abnormality. The canal 
nucleus generally disappears before fertilization and cannot be demon- 
strated at that time. 
In Darlington, S. C., fertilization took place, in 1903, from the 
fifth to the eighth of May. The necks of the archegonia are at this 
time at the bottom of the pits formed by upgrowths of the prothallium. 
The pollen tubes reach the archegonia before these pits are formed 
and the advancing prothallium grows around them. In case 
