352 BOTANICAL GAZETTE ? [MAY 
basidium. After careful search I have been unable to find the spindles 
of such a division, but numerous basidia which contained four nuclei have 
been observed. In some cases only three nuclei show in the section, but 
it seems probable that in all such cases the fourth nucleus is in another 
section. These nuclei are small and in most cases the structure is not 
so distinct as in the earlier nuclei of the basidium (jg. 13). The four 
nuclei move back from the apex of the basidium and become crowded 
together in an irregular mass in which it is difficult to distinguish the indi 
vidual nuclei (figs. 14 and 15). 
Soon after the four nuclei are formed, the two sterigmata grow out 
from the end of the basidium. The granular content of the basidium 
moves up and becomes more dense near the apex. Then the proto- 
plasm begins to pass out through the sterigmata to form the spores. The 
question which now presents itself is as to the number of nuclei which 
pass into the spores. It is difficult to follow the details of the passage 
of the nucleus through the sterigma, and it seems to me that the best 
evidence as to the number of nuclei which enter the spores is found in 
the examination of old basidia in which the spores are fully mature or 
may have fallen off. Such basidia which contain only a small amount 
of cytoplasm show the presence of two nuclei (fig. 17). From the facts 
that the basidium when the sterigmata are formed contains four nuclei 
and that it contains only two when the spores are mature one may conclude 
that two nuclear divisions take place as in those forms with basidia which 
bear four spores, but that only two of the nuclei enter the spores —CHARLES 
E. Lewis, Cornell University. 
LITERATURE CITED. 
I. DANGEARD, Mémoire sur la réproduction sexuelle des Basidiomycétes. Le 
Botaniste IV, 1 
2. Harper, R. A., Wimicleais cells in certain Hymenomycetes. Bot. GAZETTE 
pee Igo2 
3. IstvAnrr1, G., = die Rolle der Zellkerne bei der Entwickelung der 
Pilze. Ber. Desech: Bot. Gesell. 13:——. 1895. 
4. Juet, H. O., Die Kerntheilungen in den Basidien und die Phylogenie der 
Rastdinaropreeen: Jahrb. Wiss. Bot. 32: 361. 1898. 
5. Wacer, H., On nuclear division in the Hymenomycetes. Annals of Botany 
7:489. 1893. 
» ————.,, On the presence of centrospheres in fungi. Ibid. 8:321. 1894. 
