g2 BOTANICAL GAZETTE [aucusi 
have undergone important changes. In the larch the radiating — 
fibers apparently grow longer, so that by the time the chromo 
somes have reached the poles a great many of them may be 
traced to the plasma membrane. Any evidence of such a fusion 
of the fibers and the plasma membrane as Nemec described in 
the onion I was unable to find. In the equatorial plate stage 
the fibers certainly did not reach to the plasma membrane. 
Whether the difference in appearance of the radiating fibers is 
really due to the growth of the existing fibers or to the forma 
tion of new ones, I could not determine. In the later stages, | 
shorter fibers may be seen, which are possibly the radiating fibers 
of the earlier stages, while the longer fibers are newly formed. 
The increase in number of fibers which such an explanation _ 
would demand was, however, not always evident in my prepata 
tions. In connection with changes in the radiating fibers there _ 
is a disappearance of the kinoplasmic layer heretofore described 
as lying between the spindle and the cell periphery. It may be, 
as previously suggested, that the substance is used in the growth | 
of the radiating fibers, though J have no positive evidence that 
such a relation exists. The fine granular zone also disappe@® | 
during the metaphases. There is now a tendency for the cyi® _ 
plasm around the poles of the spindle to assume a finely gram: 
lar appearance. The significance of such an appearance I have 
discuss in a subsequent paragraph. 
Following the formation of the diaster there sets in a5 
of activities which are concerned immediately with the forain” 
of the cell plate. In the larch, the spindle soon appears to! 
