224 BOTANICAL GAZETTE I 



iu: 



streams of the egg cytoplasm. In many cases the connection of the 



(k 



figs 



very granular, some of the gram 

 granules. The gray bodies become attached to the filaments and 

 give the radiations about the blepharoplast a striking appearance 

 (figs. 18, 20,21, ji) . The general topography of the pollen tubes, pol- 



fig 



gray body runs 



directions, so that it becomes spindle-shaped, but often it spread 

 only in one direction, and consequently becomes top-shaped. As the 



gray 



and 



• • • 



sharply defined and have much greater density (figs. 21, 24). The 

 growth of the blepharoplast is due, in great measure, to the acq 

 of granules, and perhaps other matter, brought to it by the str 

 filaments. 



During the early stages of its growth, the body cell elongates and 

 the two blepharoplasts with their conspicuous radiations lie in the 

 plane of the long axis, one above and the other below the nucleus (fit- 

 18). The pollen tube, at this time, is very narrow, and this fact may 

 account for the elongation of the body cell, which fills nearly the entire 

 diameter of the tube. 



In March the pollen tube has become very large, especially the 

 free end of it, which projects into the pollen chamber, and with this 

 increase in the diameter of the tube the body cell changes' from an 

 elongated to a nearly spherical form, the blepharoplasts at the same 

 time rotating 90 , so that they become transverse to the long axis 



(fig 



Even before assuming the transverse orientation, the blepharo- 

 plasts may begin to show vacuolation (fig. 22), but after the t»»- 



become 



«vat.uu nets uecome estaDiisnea, me vdtu^ - 



large and so numerous that they occupy nearly the entire body ot 

 blepharoplast (fig. 25). They are scarcely affected by staining^ 

 nearly all preparations showing a dirty-white or pale-yellowish co- 



ground 



hematoxyli 



