r 



380 BOTAXICAL GAZETTE [noveuber 



spheres, and its fluid condition as contrasted with the extremely 

 viscous consistency of the peripheral protoplasm was very notice- 

 able. It was also strikingly evident that the clear liquid sub- 

 stance did not mix with the granular protoplasm during several 

 minutes of kneading of the egg contents. 



The interesting question arises, What is this clear liquid sub- 

 stance which makes up the astral polar areas and rays? Wilson 

 (27) refers to it as hyaloplasm (matrix). 11 Chambers (6) is non- 

 commital and refers to the contents of the sphere "as the sphere 

 substance or sphere liquid/' If the sphere and ray substance is 

 hyaloplasm (matrix), it is very likely a modified, and perhaps 

 greatly modified, form of it, and therefore strictly not hyaloplasm. 

 The unusual circumstances under which it is produced rather sug- 

 gest that it is at least a modified form of the matrix. This same 

 question arose concerning the identity of the exuded globules of 

 clear substance from Myxomycete plasmodia. Whether the 

 sphere substance is a secretion, which does not seem likely, or an 

 extravasation of one of the many complex phases of the living 

 colloidal system cannot be determined. 



With the coming of the telophase of mitosis and the disappear- 

 ance of the aster, the viscosity of the central protoplasm of the 

 egg rises from the low value of the sphere substance (v. v. 3) to a 

 viscosity value of 6, and with the completion of division we have 

 in each daughter cell of the embryo a general protoplasmic consis- 

 tency identical with that of the egg before fertilization (v.v. 

 between 7 and 8). 



Pathological changes in viscosity. — The changes in vis- 

 cosity so far considered have all been of living and normal proto- 

 plasm. In determining degrees of viscosity of protoplasm it has 

 been necessary to guard carefully against misinterpretations due to 

 the readiness with which protoplasm alters its consistency as a 

 result of dissection and aging, both of which bring on pathological 

 changes which inevitably result in an increase in viscosity. 



" "The substance thus flowing inwards I shall for the present designate simply 

 as hyaloplasm (equivalent to the 'cyanoplasm' of Morgan), and I believe it repre- 

 sents wholly or in part the interalveolar or continuous substance lying between the 



alveolar spheres" — (Wilson 27). 



1 







