1910] SAXTON—WIDDRINGTONIA 33 
structures make their appearance at or near their ends. These struc- 
tures appear as homogeneous dark brown bodies of various shapes, 
and may be conveniently called the “brown bodies” (fig. 5). That 
they are not produced artificially is clearly indicated by the fact that 
they are found only in the sporogenous tissue, and at first only in a 
very definite position at the two poles of the cells. Later they may 
be somewhat displaced from this position. 
The only structures previously recorded as occurring in megaspore 
mother cells, with which the “brown bodies” might conceivably be cor- 
related, are the “kinoplasmic centers’? found in Ginkgo (CAROTHERS 
1) and other gymnosperms. It seems unlikely, however, that the 
“brown bodies” are of this nature, especially as their existence has 
not been proved in functional mother cells. They seem to be 
entirely unstained by Delafield’s hematoxylin, and show a marked 
resemblance in this respect, as well as in color and consistency, to 
certain nucleoli, although nucleoli usually stain deeply with this 
reagent. At about this time some of the cells in or near the central 
axis of the nucellus begin to break down or to elongate, no doubt 
in preparation for the rapid growth of the pollen tube and embryo 
sac (fig. 6). 
3. Megasporogenesis 
About a week after the events described have taken place the 
functional megaspore mother cell is found in synapsis (figs. 7 and 9), 
the surrounding cells retaining more or less their former character. 
No preparation has been obtained which shows either of the reducing 
divisions. Figs. 10 and 11 show a state of things rather difficult to 
interpret. The arrangement of the cells marked 1, 2, 3 in fig. 10, 
and the character of the nucleus of “1” as seen in fig. 11, at once 
suggest that “1” is the megaspore preparing for its first division, and 
that “2” and “3” are two sterile cells cut off in the heterotypic and 
homotypic divisions respectively. A comparison with figs. 12 and 13, 
which unquestionably represent two normal megaspores before the 
first division, indicates however that either this interpretation is not 
the true one or that the ovule was not normal. 
In the preliminary account (10) a stage was figured which seemed 
to indicate a very large number of megaspores. Although every prep- 
aration of the same age showed an almost identical structure, it has 
