SOME ASPECTS OF AMITOSIS IN SYNCHYTRIUM 1 



Robert F. Griggs 



(WITH PLATES III AND iv) 



Previous papers on the cytology of Synchytrium have announced 

 very striking peculiarities in the nuclear behavior of this interesting 

 fungus. The idiosyncrasies, only a portion of which have yet been 

 described, are so abundant at a certain period of the life-cycle of the 

 plant that it is very difficult to consider any one set of phenomena 

 without quickly becoming involved in all the rest, either because of 

 the occurrence of different types of structures in the same coenocytic 

 cy st » or because of transitional forms apparently connecting diverse 

 structures. While no final interpretation of any one series of nuclear 

 transformations can be made until it has been brought into relation 

 with the whole life-history, it is apparent that it is out of the question 

 to work out all of the peculiarities at once. The present paper is an 

 attempt to isolate and describe one of the most conspicuous groups of 

 nuclear phenomena. Further correlation of this with other mani- 

 estations of nuclear activity will be undertaken in later papers. 



As in the preparation of a former paper on Synchytrium (Griggs 

 7), the writer is under very great obligations to his friend, Professor 



pr bl STEVENS ' for the info rmation which aroused his interest in the 

 P ro em and for criticism of the results. This obligation is increased 



the llf"* that Dr ' Stevens also supplied the material from which 

 SDe ' 1 ^ Were made ' The present paper deals entirely with one 

 ^Pecies Synchytrium decipiens Farlow. The drawings have all been 



^ ,. r ° m P re Parations stained with Heidenhain's iron alum hema- 



toxvl 



The triple stain has also been used. 



T , r «■«* "0,3 aisu uccu uscu. 



the v ar - ^ C>t0logy of this P lant ther e is no more striking feature than 



frequent^ 011 m the SiZG ° f the nuclei - In the same c y st nuclei are 

 Gamete Y ran § in g a11 the way from 8 or io fi down to i /* in 



th e small ^ ^ ^ reported b ^ Stevens (12, fig. 2). Very often 



nuclei are bunched together, either in a close morula-like 



No. XL. n Utl ° nS from the Botanical Laboratorj^ of the Ohio State University, 



1 



2 7l 



[Botanical Gazette, vol. 47 



