Ree WN eet RE ee ore ee eee 
ay 
1903] GAMETOPHYTES AND EMBRYO OF TAXODIUM 121 
various sizes are deposited (fig. ror). The larger of these linin 
granules take the red stain, and thus become indistinguishable 
from the chromatin masses of the nucleus. At no stage in the 
development of the egg nucleus is it without a distinct reticulum. 
Whether the chromatin reticulum contracts to form separate 
chromatin masses or whether it remains as the coarser part of 
the reticulum shown in figs. zoo and zor seems uncertain. 
Chamberlain (’99) and Blackman (’98) have minutely 
described the development of the female nucleus in Pinus Laricto 
and Pinus sylvestris, respectively. The former describes the com- 
plete disappearance of the nuclear reticulum at two stages of the 
development of the nucleus. At the time of fertilization the 
chromatin is all grouped in the center of the egg nucleus, the 
remainder being occupied by the finely granular linin substance. 
This condition would not be so different from the case in Tax- 
odium if the chromatin reticulum of the latter should resolve 
itself into chromatin nucleoli before the organization of the linin 
substance into a distinct reticulum. Such a condition, however, 
has not been found. In the mature egg nucleus the number of 
small nucleoli which take the red stain with safranin is some- 
times no larger than could be supplied by the chromatin of the 
nucleus, but when the linin substance becomes collected into 
large granules, which is not at all unusual, they also take the red 
stain and cannot easily be distinguished from the chromatin 
nucleoli. Their color, however, is usually a more purplish red 
than is the case with the chromatin nucleoli, and if the washing is 
continued they are the first to lose the reddish stain. 
FERTILIZATION. 
We left the pollen tube after describing the formation of the 
male cells. The divisions of the central cell of the archegonium 
and of the central cell of the pollen tube occur simultaneously, 
or almost so, in every case observed, and in this respect again 
resemble the _Cupresseae (Strasburger,’79). Fertilization occurs 
in a very short time after the completion of these divisions. As 
stated in my previous note, both sperm cells may enter one 
archegonium, but this is by no means always the case, in fact 
