8 BOTANICAL GAZETTE [JANUARY 
‘formity in the number of chromosomes and their appearance as 
exactly V-shaped as when they entered into the alveolate and reticu- 
late condition, seem to indicate strongly that the limits of the indi« 
vidual chromosomes are distinctly maintained during the nuclear 
changes. 
After the disappearance of the nuclear membrane the divergent 
arms of the V-shaped chromosomes draw near to one another, and as 
they are arranged in an equatorial plate the two arms lie closely 
parallel. In metaphase the two arms separate. The two sets of 
daughter chromosomes reach the poles and vacuolation begins (jig. 
16); their aspect in this stage is like the telophase of the vegetative 
mitosis, except in the number of chromosomes. 
Discussion 
The object of this paper is to present briefly the results obtained 
in the study of the chromosomes of Osmunda cinnamomea, and no 
detailed discussion of the literature of the subject is intended. Only 
a few remarks on the morphology of the chromatin substance will 
be made at this time. 
SYNAPSIS 
Although there are a few authors, as McCCLUNG (9), SCHAFFNER 
(13), JANSSEN (8), and Haecker (6), who believe that synapsis 
is either an artifact or has no significance in the reduction division, 
yet the phenomenon has been demonstrated in many cases in living 
material, and now a majority of workers agree that the stage is of 
perfectly normal occurrence and that it always directly precedes 
the reduction division. 
The details of synapsis in the plant cell have been followed by vari- 
‘ous botanists in a great number of plants, the most detailed accounts 
relating to flowering plants. Excepting STRASBURGER’S Gamosomen 
theory based on his study of Galtonia (16), many botanical cytolo- 
gists agree that there are parallel nuclear threads. As regards the 
structure of the nuclear threads the views differ; some (FARMER and 
Moore 2, and others) believe the threads to be composed of chromatin 
imbedded in linin groundwork; some (OvERTON 11, and others) 
claim that it is composed of prochromosomes connected with the 
Od 
