—! eng 
2 BOTANICAL GAZETTE [JULY © 
surface of the spadix. During the latter part of July and early | 
in August these become more prominent and begin to take on © 
the character of stamens or pistils, as the case may be.. The ~ 
staminate plants can usually be determined during August and 
in September by the dried remnant of the staminate flower, — 
which in many instances remains attached during the season; or — 
by the cleft in the petiole of the leaf where it emerged. The 
pistillate plants can usually be determined by the presence of 
the forming fruit, though some of the smaller pistillate plants of © 
one season become staminate for the next season, because of 
exhaustion in seed bearing. The archesporium of the staminate _ 
plants develops during July, August, and early September ; or it 
may be mature by September. : 
The material for this study was collected and prepared by — 
myself during September 1897. The staminate plants were : 
brought to the laboratory and the material was fixed on the day 
of collection. The spadix was first removed from the bud so _ 
that the anthers were entirely exposed. One or two anthers — 
from each spadix were removed and crushed on a glass slip in a ! 
drop of water for examination under the microscope to deter-_ ; 
mine the stage of development. In this way all material where 
the pollen was already developed could be discarded, and only _ 
that preserved which was in one or another stage of mitosis. é 
This made it possible to obtain good sections for study on a 
large number of the slides prepared. The nuclear figures can be @ 
quite readily seen in the living condition, but if there was any 
difficulty in determining the stage of mitosis, a drop of a solu- 
tion of chloral hydrate was added, as suggested by Humphrey | 
The spores are formed centrifugally on the spadix, 2. ¢., the sta~ 
mens at the base of the spadix are usually more advanced than 
those toward the apex, so that if the pollen was just formed in 
the lower stamens, the upper ones might show pollen mother 
cells in one or another of the stages of division. There was, 
however, considerable variation in the same stamen in this 
respect, while in a single locule there was little if any variation 
The material selected in this way was placed without further 
