1898] BRIEFER ARTICLES 433 
cell and during mitosis maintain a position at opposite poles of the 
spindle, although at some distance from the spindle and from the 
daughter nuclei after division has taken place. Judging from the fig- 
ures, one might conclude that, while the blepharoplasts do not appear 
to be concerned in the formation of the spindle, they may perhaps 
determine its orientation. As a matter of fact, the wall between the 
daughter nuclei is at right angles to a line connecting the two ble- 
pharoplasts. Belajeff’s figures of Gymnogramme and Shaw’s of Marsilea 
show the same orientation. Hirasé believes that the blepharoplast is 
a centrosome. . 
Ikeno’s description of blepharoplasts in Cycas revolufa agrees in 
general with Hirasé’s account of Gingko. After reviewing Hermann’s 
work on the spermatogenesis of the salamander and the mouse, Ikeno 
comes to the conclusion that the blepharoplasts of the Characezx, 
Filicineee and Equisetacee, and also those of Gingko, Cycas and 
Zamia, not only bear a superficial resemblance to centrosomes but are 
genuine centrosomes which become enormously elongated and furnish 
a place of attachment for the cilia. Belajeff had previously reached a 
somewhat similar conclusion, although it was left for _Ikeno to formu- 
late it. Belajeff homologizes the blepharoplast of Characee, Filicinex 
and Equisetacee with the deeply staining body of the spermatid of 
the salamander and the mouse, while the middle piece of the animal 
-Spermatozoon corresponds to the elongated cilia-bearing band of the 
plant spermatozoid. The thread-like tail of the spermatozoon of the 
Salamander and mouse corresponds to a single one of the cilia of the 
plant spermatozoid. 
The blepharoplasts of Zemia integrifolia described by Webber are 
the largest yet discovered. Webber does not believe that they = 
centrosomes. It may be true that they take no part in the formation 
of the spindle, but an examination of the figures forcibly suggests that 
they either orient the spindle or are oriented by it. 
The centrosome of the alga Dictyota, recently de wp 
becomes elongated into a band which gives rise to cilia-like radiations. 
Mottier, as will be remembered, declares that in the higher plants 
there are neither centrosomes nor centrospheres in vegetative ns se secant 
ductive cells, whether in the resting condition or during division, and 
he further asserts that there are no bodies which have any resemblance 
whatever to these structures or which stand in any relation ipaaities to 
karyokinesis. In the paper on Dictyota, Mottier, referring to the 
scribed by Mottier, 
