238 . BOTANICAL GAZETTE [APRIL 
matin, as is claimed by ScHAUDINN for the similar bodies of Cocci- 
dium. Fig. 61 could therefore be interpreted as showing the rim of 
chromatin, but the plastin substance of the middle core has entirely 
disappeared. 
The division of the nucleus just described for Empusa sciarae takes 
place in the later vegetative stages, when cross partitions are frequent 
and when the coenocytic cells are consequently comparatively short. 
Among the four or five nuclei present in each cell in this condition, we 
may occasionally find two nuclei in a state of division; generally but 
one, however, divides at a time. The nuclei in a certain cell do not, 
therefore, divide simultaneously, but each appears to act in entire 
independence of neighboring nuclei. 
There occurs in earlier stages of the vegetation of the fungus an 
interesting modification of the process as described above. Figs. 
62-65 illustrate late stages in the division of the nuclei found in long: 
coenocytic cells, in which cross-partitions are few and far apart. It 
will be remembered that during the earlier vegetative activities of 
Empusa sciarae, nuclear division takes place much more rapidly than 
cell-division, with the result that septa occur at rare intervals, while, 
on the other hand, nuclei during this period are abundant. When we 
come to compare the seemingly different type of nuclear division shown 
in figs. 62, 63 with that shown in figs. 50-55, we note in each the intra- 
nuclear centers and the radiating chromatic filaments mentioned above. 
But here in the latter type the dividing nuclei assume an hour-glass 
shape, similar to those of Coccidium as shown in certain of SCHAUD- 
INN’S drawings, instead of the oval or elliptical shape characteristic of 
the nuclei during the division above described. A careful comparison, 
however, leads to the conclusion that the only essential difference 
between the two types of division is in the amount of nuclear sap. In 
the latter case there is lacking the clear space filled with nuclear sap, 
between the separating chromatic filaments, so conspicuous in the type 
above described; or at least the fluid is much diminished in quantity. 
In jig. 65 some is still present in the constricted region; but between 
_ the separating daughter halves in figs. 62, 63, as well as in fig. 64, 
little sap, if any, is evident. Fig. 65 shows, in fact, a transition 
between the elongated, hour-glass shaped nuclei of the latter type 
and the oval ones of the former. 
