i BOTANICAL GAZETTE [ DECEMBER 
blepharoplasts of higher plants, states that they have nothing to do 
with spindle formation, a more conservative statement which, though 
probable, still remains to be proved, and even if proved determines 
no homologies. 
It is readily admitted that the presence of centrosomes is not 
established in any of these plants which have such conspicuous ble- 
pharoplasts, and that the blepharoplasts are reported only in the last 
two generations of cells concerned in the formation of the spermatozoid ; 
but it must also be admitted that the usually spherical centrosome may 
in certain cases assume other shapes, and that an increasing number of 
competent observers do not regard the centrosome as a permanent 
organ of the cell. Furthermore, the absence of the centrosomes from 
the higher cryptogams and the flowering plants is far from being 
established, and a most convincing demonstration is necessary before 
the testimony of Guignard, Rosen, Campbell, Schaffner and others 
can be disregarded. 
If our conception of the centrosome is formed exclusively from 
the familiar figures of karyokinesis and the function of the centro- 
some in this process, we shall doubtless look for a new name whenever 
we find a centrosome-like body performing any other function than 
that of the typical centrosome; but it seems probable that a thorough 
investigation of karyokinesis and the formation of cilia in the lower 
plants may support the theory that the blepharoplast is a centrosome. 
—Cnuas. J. CHAMBERLAIN, Zhe University of Chicago. 
BIBLIOGRAPHY. 
BELAJEFF, WL.: Ueber Bau und Entwickelung der Spermatozoiden. Ber. d. deutsch 
bot. Gesell. 7 : 121-125. 1 
— Ueber Bau und Eutwicketong der Spermatozoiden der Pflanzen. Flora 
79 : 1-48. 1894 
— Ueber a Nebenkern in spermatogenen Zellen und die pee 
bei den Farnkrauter. Ber. d. deutsch. bot. Gesell. 15 : 337-339. 1597: 
— Ueber die Spermatogenesie bei den Schachtelhalmen. Be. d. deutsch. 
bot. Gesell. —. 339-342. 1897. 
r die Aehnlichkeit einiger Erscheinungen in der Spermatogenesis bei 
Thieren a Pflan Ber. d. deutsch. bot. Gesell. 15 : 342-345. 1897. 
GUIGNARD, L.: tichsctaeen et constitution des antherozoides. Rev. gén. d. bot. 1 + 
11-27, 63-78, 136-145, AiR 1889. 
— Centrosomes in p Bot. Gaz. 25 : 158-164. 1898. 
HERMANN, F.: Beitrige zur poe der Spermatogenesie. Archiv. f. mikr. Anat. 
50 : 276-315. 1897. 
