ee ee eS a Se ee 
1892. ] Briefer Articles. 161 
The embryo-sae of the Metasperme.— Hartog in the Dec. 1891 
number of the Quarterly Journal of Microscopical Science suggests that 
the eight cells in the embryo-sac of the Metasperme are all to be con- 
sidered as reproductive and follows the later view that the endosperm 
nucleus isa zygote. In a foot-note he retracts this position, in conse- 
quence of Guignard’s work on the embryo-sac of Lilium. The writer 
4 short time ago sent to the GazETTE a statement of the same position 
as that first maintained by Hartog; but upon seeing his paper the preli- 
minary note was withdrawn. In view of my own observation I am not, 
however, inclined to withdraw with Hartog from what seems to me the 
clear fact that the embryo-sac is, wherever we meet it, a megaspore. 
I do not think that the results of Guignard at all prevent us from hold- 
ing to the view that the cells within the embryo-sac are, in Archi- 
Sperm and Metaspermze alike, a female plant. Ata later time I hope 
to discuss this point. In this brief note attention is directed to one 
fact which has escaped the late investigations, I believe. It is this: in 
the embryo-sacs of Warcissus poeticus, Portulaca oleracea, and Cucurbita 
number than in the antipodal nucleus. In a number of other ways 
that might be named the antipodal nucleus reacts as an egg while 
nucleus reacts as a sperm. It is clear that this can be 
upon the hypothesis of Weissmann that the micro- 
‘histogenic, upon that of Hartog that it 1s an arrest- 
Mme or, best of all, upon that of Minot, Balfour and Van Beneden, 
"tis the male substance thrown off as a polar body and to make 
Toom for th 
Itis therefo 
'S 2 zygote, 
beside the 
er it has be 
Phase and act 
see depen 
A psetd °-Producing egg-cell. The views of Warming, Mann,’ Vesque, 
"gard, or the later view of Hartog, that these cells are any OF 
