448 BOTANICAL GAZETTE [DECEMBER 
Antilles, a publication which has special interest in view of the botanical col- 
lections now being made in Cuba and Porto Rico. These “crumbs” Miiller 
has swept up from various collections, some as old as Charles Wright's 
(1856). He enumerates 175 species, of which almost 100 are marked 2. sf. 
Of these, however, nearly one-fourth have been previously otherwise deter- 
mined by such bryologists as Sullivant, Mitten, and Bescherelle. In view of 
these ratios we are inclined to think the finding of so many “crumbs” is due 
rather to the fineness of the crumb brush than to the carelessness of other 
sweepers.—C, R. B 
BELAJEFF’s account* of the origin of the cilia of spermatozoids has been 
confirmed and supplemented by Dr. W. R. Shaw,? who has taken Onoclea and 
Marsilea as his types. In these plants, as in Equisetum and Gymnogramme, 
the cilia arise from a small cytoplasmic body lying in the mother cell of the 
spermatozoid. For this cytoplasmic body, which was designated ‘ Neben- 
kern ” by Belajeff, Dr. Shaw proposes to adopt the more expressive name 
“blepharoplast,” a name first employed by Webber to denote a similar struc- 
ture in Zamia. Dr. Shaw has sought to discover the origin of the blepharo- 
plasts and their behavior in karyokinesis. In the antheridia of Marsilea true 
blepharoplasts are found only inthe last two cell generations. In the early 
stages nothing like a blepharoplast is present, but in the karyokinesis inter- 
vening between the two- and four-celled stage a small body appears at each 
pole of the two spindles ; subsequently each of them divides intotwo. Since 
these bodies disappear into the cytoplasm and do not give rise directly to the 
true blepharoplasts, the author calls them “ blepharoplastoids.” About the 
time when the blepharoplastoids are lost sight of, the blepharoplasts make their 
first appearance as small granules situated in the spindle-poles of the nuclear 
figures which precede the eight-celled stageof the antheridium. Each of them 
divides into two. During the following resting condition of the nucleus these 
two halves gradually separate, at the same time increasing in size, and move 
round to the positions to be taken by the poles of the next following gine 
During the ensuing karyokinesis they remain practically unchanged. — n the 
mother cell of the spermatozoid the blepharoplasts become Si elon- 
gate, and probably undergo the same transformations which Belajeff has 
described in detail. 
The accompanying diagram, copied from’ Dr. Shaw’s paper, will help to 
make clear the relations of the blepharoplast as, well as to explain his substi- 
tution of the zoological terms “ spermatocyte” and “spermatid” for the 
exceedingly cumbrous phraseology in use among botanists. While changes 
in terminology are difficult to secure, the advantages of the suggested modifi- 
cations are obvious. Indeed it would be almost ludicrous to speak of “ great- 
* Berichte der deutschen bot. Gesell. 15: 337-345. ae and 16: 140-143. 1898 
*3 Berichte der deutschen bot. Gesell. 16: 177-184. I 
