12 ». BOTANICAL GAZETTE | JULY 
running water, dehydrated in grades of alcohol to 95 per cent., 
then decolorized in mass in alcohol of 70 per cent. which was 
diluted with hydrogen peroxid. It was then passed back to 
alcohol of commercial strength, then through absolute alcohol, 
and cedar oil ; finally it was infiltrated with paraffin and imbedded. 
It was then stored in the paraffin blocks for a, few weeks or 
months as time became available for cutting and staining. The 
material was cut on a Minot-Zimmermann microtome and stained, 
some with the triple stain (safranin-gentian-violet-orange) and: 
some with iron-hematoxylin. 
The early stages of the spirem have not yet been studied, 
but the spirem forms a broad and probably continuous band. 
Before it segments, it often shows a differentiation, where not 
overstained, into a ground substance giving a pale purple or pale 
violet reaction with the gentian violet, and more deeply stained 
bodies which are in pairs and appear at quite regular intervals in 
the band. The line of separation which runs along between the 
pairs of denser chromatin masses marks the line of longitudinal 
division of the spirem, though the ground substance often shows 
no division line. As the spirem matures, here and there are 
seen short openings along the middle line. This is especially 
well marked as the spirem segments into the chromosomes. 
The individual chromosomes often show traces of longitudinal 
division, by short openings near one end, or at the middle, oftener 
at the ends, where there is a slight indentation; or, the division 
proceeding deeper, the end is more or less forked, resulting in 
Y- or U-shaped figures. 
The spirem segments into about six chromosomes. They 
are at first rather long and become somewhat shorter and 
broader as they move to the nuclear plate of the spindle. 
At this time the usual changes in the nucleus take place. 
The membrane disappears and the threads of kinoplasm move 
in, showing first a radiating arrangement and gradually moving 
to converge into the two poles as the spindle is formed; the 
chromosomes are drawn toward the center and are finally oriented 
in the nuclear plate. The chromosomes are broad, flattened, 
