80 COMPARATIVE EMBRYOLOGY OF THE RUBIACEAE 
in this paper in connection with the development of the embryo- 
sac-mother-cell. The numbers of fibers then seen and their ap- 
parent behavior with respect to the nucleus, as already indicated, 
in many ways harmonize with Wilson’s suggestion. If further 
study should show this harmony to be complete, we would then 
have strong grounds, in the absence of direct observation of the 
living material, for the belief that these fibers are currents of viscid 
material (kinoplasm, hyaloplasm) the view first taken by Auerbach, 
and later adopted by Fol, Strasburger + and others in modified 
form. ۱ 
It would appear that a further and more particular study of the 
behavior of the kinoplasm during the prophase in plants from the 
suggestive point of view just indicated would have a distinct bear- 
ing upon the vexing problem of the nature of the fibers. 
In the prophase of the second division the granddaughter 
chromosomes reappear in Crucianella as pairs of rods lying parallel 
to or partly twisted about each other and lying on the nuclear. 
walls (pl. 11, fig. 21). In Asperula the chromosomes are so 
short that they appear as pairs of spheres (A. 9, fig. 16), though 
in metaphase they frequently appear as pairs of short rods, one 
lying above and one below the equatorial plate. The mantle 
fibers are usually attached to the chromosomes at their ends, one 
chromosome lying above and one below the equatorial plane 
(pl. 11, figs. 8, 22 and 35) Occasionally, however, they may 
be attached at some point along their length. During anaphase, 
therefore, the chromosomes have the form of short rods with their 
longitudinal axes directed toward the spindle poles (pl. zr, fig. 
24), or less frequently of bent rods with the loop similarly di- 
rected (pl. zr, fig. 25) There are some minor differences between 
the form of the chromosomes in the second pollen- and embryo- 
sac-mother-cell divisions. In the latter the rods are longer and 
more slender ( rz, fig. 24); in the former shorter and thicker 
(A^. 11, fig. 9( On account of this fact and the further one that 
in Crucianella gilanica the spindles are very small in the pollen 
cells, the character of the structures is rather difficult to deter- 
mine. In Crucianella macrostachya, in the anther locules of which 
but one row of pollen mother-cells is present, the opportunities 
T Zellbildung und Zelltheilung. 3 Aufl., 367. 
