1914] HUTCHINSON—MALE GAMETOPHYTE OF ABIES 151 
Miyake describes two male nuclei which enter the archegonium, 
and the one which fuses with the egg nucleus is said to be the 
larger. Before pollination, no difference in the size of structure 
could be detected (figs. 4 and 7), and MryAxe’s drawings show 
little or no difference in the pollen tube stage. 
Occasionally the stalk cell also 
divides to form two derivative cells. 
The division is sometimes anticlinal 
(fig. 7), and sometimes periclinal 
(figs. 5 and 6). When this -division 
takes place, the resulting nuclei fre- 
quently become uniformly granular 
and gradually degenerate. In this 
case also the separating walls are not 
always present (fig. 5) and the appear- 
ance is suggestive of amitosis. 
There may be as many as four 
derivatives of the generative cell. In 
order to ascertain how many of the 
nuclei enter the egg at fertilization, 
an examination of the archegonium 
wasmade. Frequently there are four 
supernumerary nuclei at the micro- 
pylar end of archegonium after fertili- 
zation and during the proembryo 
Stage (fig.8). These in all probability 
are the second male nucleus, the two 
derivatives of the stalk cell, and the 
tube nucleus. Mrvaxe states that 
these nuclei have the power of divi- four nuclei of proembryo; 6:0. 
Sion. An examination of pollen grains 
lodged in the micropyle shows that while the other contents have 
passed into the pollen tube, the prothallial cells do not escape, but 
are retained by the intine in which they are imbedded. 
_ The division of the generative cell in Abies may be an adapta- 
Hon to the rapid succession of events between pollination and ferti- 
lization: about 4 weeks in A. balsamea and 1 3 weeks in Pinus. Picea 
