(318) 
Whether we are to regard the synergids as a center for the 
distribution of a stimulant or as a means of transmission of 
the generative nuclei of the pollen-tube is difficult to deter- 
mine. Indeed they may perform both of these functions. 
That the physiological properties of the different embryo-sac 
cells are variable there is abundant evidence. Dodel” de- 
scribes the fertilization of synergids in /rzs Szbirica. Embryos 
are occasionally derived from antipodals (Tretjakow™), and 
the fertilization of the polar nuclei is now known to occur in 
many plants. 
Investigations relative to the embryo-sac and associated 
structures in the Sympetalae have been particularly abundant 
in recent years. We have the works of Chamberlain,” Mer- 
rell,* Goldflus® and Juel* on the Compositae; of Balicka- 
Iwanowska‘ on the Scrophulariaceae, Plantaginaceae, Cam- 
panulaceae and Dipsaceae; of Guignard® on the Solanaceae ; 
of Lloyd® on the Rubiaceae; of Billings’ on the Caprifolia- 
ceae, Globulariaceae, Goodeniaceae, Hydrophyllaceae and 
Primulaceae; and numerous others. Very little, however, 
has been done upon the Cucurbitaceae. 
The first work of any importance which touches the embry- 
ology of the Cucurbitaceae was that of Brongniart® in 1826. 
In this he has figured better than he has described the embryo- 
sac of Pepo macrocarpus and Momordica Elaterium. Inthe 
former the anatomy of the ovule corresponds to the general 
type and is essentially correct. While most of this work has 
to do with the process of fertilization and will be referred to 
later, it is interesting to note that in Pepfo the peculiar form 
of the endosperm in its coecum-like prolongation towards the 
chalaza is figured with approximate accuracy, and the action 
of endosperm upon the nucellus is also shown in Momordica. 
Mirbel® in 1829 describes the structure of the ovule and 
embryo-sac in Cucum7s Anguria and C. leucantha. He 
points out the fact that the young ovules are at first mere 
protuberances, and clearly shows that the relations of the 
micropyle and chalaza are maintained during the turning of 
an anatropous ovule and that the development of the raphe 
