92 BOTANICAL GAZETTE [august 



phytes are embodied in two papers appearing in 191 1. In the 

 first of these Woodburn (95) gives an account of spermatogenesis 

 in Porella, Asterella, Marchantia, and Fegatella. He finds that the 

 blepharoplast is first distinguishable as a spherical granule in the 

 cytoplasm of the spermatid, and holds that it represents, as Mot- 

 tier (71) had formerly suggested, an individualized part of the 

 kinoplasm arising de novo in certain spermatogenous cells. Wilson 

 (93) describes the phenomena occurring in Pellia, Atrichum, and 

 Mniunt. In Mnium and Atrichum the spermatogenous divisions 

 show no centrosomes, while in Pellia centrospheres, and probably 

 centrosomes, are present during the later mitoses. The origin of 

 the blepharoplast as here described is very peculiar. In the sper- 

 matid of Mnium a number of bodies separate from the nucleolus 

 and pass out into the cytoplasm where they coalesce to form a 

 "limosphere." The nucleolus then divides into two masses, both 

 of which pass into the cytoplasm; one functions as the blepharoplast 

 while the other gives rise to an accessory body. In Atrichum the 

 first body separated from the nucleolus becomes the blepharoplast, 

 a second forms the limosphere, and a third the accessory body. In 

 Pellia the origin of these structures was not determined. In all 

 three plants the blepharoplast goes to the periphery of the cell and 

 produces a threadlike structure along the plasma membrane. The 

 nucleus then moves against this thread and the two metamorphose 

 together to form the spermatozoid. Wilson regards the blepharo- 

 plast as " probably derived from a centrosome." 



According to Humphrey (49) the blepharoplast of Fossombronia 

 is first seen in the cytoplasm of the spermatid. 



The early papers dealing with the spermatozoid in pteridophytes, 

 such as those of Buchtien (9), Campbell (12), Belajeff (i), 

 Guignard (35), and Schottlander (75), give us little or no 

 information concerning the development of the blepharoplast. 

 Our more definite knowledge of this subject dates from 1897, when 

 Belajeff published three short papers. In the first of these (3) it: 

 is stated that the fern spermatozoid consists of a thread-shaped 

 nucleus and a plasma band, with a great many cilia growing out 

 from the latter. In the plasma band is inclosed a thin thread 

 which arises by the lengthening of a small body seen in the sperma- 



