118 BOTANICAL GAZETTE [AUGUST 
From Strasburger’s (’79) account it seems probable that this is 
equally true in the Cupresseae. Ikeno (’or) has well remarked 
that the important point is the division of the nucleus and not 
the separation of a small amount of protoplasm from the egg. 
Arnold (’99) denies the occurrence of even a ventral canal 
nucleus in Sequoia. 
The ventral canal nucleus remains closely applied to the sur- 
face of the egg and is somewhat flattened or compressed. It 
does not go through the peculiar changes which occur in the 
egg nucleus before fertilization, but having reached the condi- 
tion shown in fig. go does not develop much further until after 
the fertilization of the egg. It is furnished with a chromatin 
reticulum and an evident nucleolus. The ventral canal nucleus 
has usually been described as undergoing disorganization soon 
after its formation, sometimes reaching a resting condition, but 
generally never developing further than the first stages of this 
condition (Blackman, ’98; Ikeno, ’98; Murrill, ’o1, among 
others). Chamberlain (’98) figures a well-developed nucleus 
in the young fertilized archegonium of Pinus Laricio, which 
closely resembled the egg nucleus and which is, as he sug- 
gests, in all probability the ventral canal nucleus. Very 
recently Ikeno (’o1) has described a large nucleus in the tip of 
the egg of Ginkgo and called it a ventral canal nucleus. He also 
calls attention to the possibility that a persistent ventral canal 
nucleus may have been mistaken for the extra male nucleus 
among previous observers. It has also probably been figured as 
the functional male nucleus. 
The position of the ventral canal nucleus in Taxodium at 
some protected place on the side of the archegonium has pre- 
served it from destruction during the entrance of the sperm cell, 
and as the fusing male and female nuclei approach the base of 
the archegonium the ventral canal nucleus begins to extend into 
the center, and by amitotic division it usually gives rise to the 
several nuclei of different sizes which occupy the upper half of 
the egg (figs. 107,172). If the egg is not fertilized, the ventral 
canal nucleus generally remains unchanged in its original position 
(jig. zo7), but it not infrequently increases in size and moves 
