312 BOTANICAL GAZETTE [October 



.spermen (22), Strasburger shows (pi. 2 , fig. 19) a filiform appa- 

 ratus, but no notch in Polygonum divaricatum. Coulter and 

 Chamberlain (4, p. 94) say that "such beak-like extensions of the 

 sac and synergids are usually associated with narrow and long 

 micropyles." But in Parnassia the micropyle is usually wide open 

 and even all nucellar cells have disappeared from this region. 



A similar filiform apparatus and notch are shown by Strasburger 

 (21) in Santalum. This is shown quite clearly in spite of the very 

 imperfect technique of that time. In Santalum the notch seems to 

 be definitely related to the embryo sac wall, the upper part of the 

 synergids protruding beyond the wall, and this indentation being 

 just against the upper end of this broken wall. Nawaschin (16) 

 shows in his fig. 9 a very deep notch in the synergids of Helianthus 

 annuus. The synergids are pointed, but do not show the lines of the 

 filiform apparatus in the upper part, although just below the notch 

 the lines are quite distinct. This part of the figure is not described, 

 and it may be that the upper part has the usual lines of the filiform 

 apparatus, but they failed to appear in the plate. Here the notch 

 seems definitely related to the cytoplasm of the sac, very much as 

 it is in Parnassia. Juel (14) shows the usual embryo sac in 

 Saxifraga granulata, but does not describe a filiform apparatus. 

 This stage he shows in a microphotograph which is quite indistinct 

 in this region. Fig. 38 is slightly older; the filiform apparatus is 

 beginning to develop in the synergids. The nucleus is above the 

 vacuole in one and below it in the other synergid. Fig. 39 has an 

 unusual development of the vacuoles in the synergids; here the 

 polars are in contact. In fig. 40 the vacuoles are below the nuclei 

 in both synergids, and the polars have fused, forming the primary 

 endosperm nucleus. The filiform apparatus and notch are quite 

 distinct by this time. Another view of a sac of about the same stage 

 is shown in fig. 41. In this ovary many sacs were still in the four- 

 nucleate condition. 



The upper part of a mature sac is shown in fig. 4 2 - The polars 

 have already fused. In Parnassia they apparently always fuse 

 immediately, as they are fused in all the mature sacs examined. The 

 caplike filiform apparatus is always very conspicuous at this stage, 

 and stains red with Congo red, which shows it to be cellulose. ln e 



