36 BOTANICAL GAZETTE [JANUARY 
nuclear cavity, the chromatic mass remaining the same size. In 
1899 GUIGNARD (19) reported the absence of synapsis in Naias 
major. CARDIFF (5) has described this phase as the deferred 
culmination of fertilization. The later tendency is to admit its 
presence as a normal stage and to consider it only a time of great 
shortening and thickening of chromatic filaments (GREGOIRE 17, 
Bercus 2, Davis 8). GrEGorrE in his discussion of synapsis 
admits that it is not a universal phenomenon. When it does 
occur, he believes it can have no réle to play in the process of 
reduction, but is itself a result of certain nuclear activities. He 
further suggests that the appearance of synapsis may be empha- 
sized by the growth of the nuclear cavity or by an artificial contrac- 
tion caused by fixing reagents enhancing the natural contraction. 
GATES (16) states that it is evident many changes take place 
during synapsis, though there may be no interchange or influence 
between homologous chromosomes. He points out (15) that such 
influences may take place at any time during the sporophytic 
phase of the life cycle. Ernst (12) considers synapsis normal, 
otherwise a similar sensitiveness to fixing fluids ought to show in 
vegetative mitosis of corresponding stages. There is one possi- 
bility favoring artifact, namely, that the progressive stages of 
mitosis may be accompanied by chemical changes in the chromatic 
substance which cause different reactions to fixing fluids. It is 
difficult, however, to conceive of a chemical change occurring in 4 
heterotypic prophase which would not also occur in a somatic 
prophase. Moreover, there is no experimental basis for this view, 
though NEMEC (30) by microchemical tests demonstrated differ- 
ences in the chromatin of resting and dividing nuclei. 
The contraction of the nuclear contents is very striking in 
Smilax herbacea (cf. figs. 5, 6, 7), and is without doubt a normal 
condition. It is difficult to assign synapsis a réle in Smilax. It 
is evident that the appearance of the nucleus after synapsis differs 
markedly from the preceding conditions; the chromatin elements 
pass into synapsis as distinct bodies and emerge in a homogeneous 
filament. Until more light is thrown upon this phase, we can only 
vaguely state that synapsis may facilitate the proper placing of 
the paired parental elements in the chromosomes and the chromo- 
