DIVISION OF, THE CENTRAL CELL. 39 
the central cell is this distinction evident. In the Flemming triple 
stain the fibers radiating from the blepharoplast are stained deep pur- 
ple with the gentian violet as normally occurs, but the reticulum of 
the trophoplasm also stains the same color, though slightly lighter, and 
in no case has the stain showed any characteristic differentiation 
between them. The nucleus of the central cell in this resting stage 
just preceding division is in most cases strongly indented on each side 
just below the blepharoplast (fig. 59). It might be assumed at first 
that this was due to the growth toward the nucleus of the kinoplasmic 
filaments in an early stage of spindle formation, but careful examina- 
tion plainly shows that this is not the case. The kinoplasmic rays do 
not crowd down against the nucleus to any extent, and the spindle is 
entirely intranuclear when first formed, having no connection with the 
blepharoplast. 
DIVISION OF THE CENTRAL CELL. 
The earliest stage in the division of the central cell which the writer 
has been able to detect occurs in the nucleus, in which here and there 
an accumulation of highly staining granules takes place, forming small, 
irregularly arranged groups (fig. 27). The blepharoplasts and other 
organs of the cell in this stage remain comparatively the same as in 
the preceding stage. The condensation of chromatin matter evidently 
continues, and gradually the complete continuous chromatin skein is 
organized. In the skein stage there seems to be nothing particularly 
different from the process ordinarily observed in the skein stage of 
other cells and plants. The chromatin band forms a loose, open coil 
(fig. 28), occupying but a small part of the nucleus. The small amount 
of chromatin visible here and in later stages seems out of proportion 
to the enormous size of the nucleus. Occasionally light lines can be 
observed radiating from portions of the skein in this stage, possibly 
foreshadowing the formation of the spindle. This would not seem to 
be the case, however, as similar linesarealso observable in some instances 
radiating from the groups of chromatin granules in the earliest stage of 
division. Intheskeinstage the blepharoplast remains in apparently the 
same condition as in the preceding stage unless somewhat larger. The 
kinoplasmic radiations stillappearvery abundant. Thiscollection of the 
stainable matters into groups of granules and then into a continuous 
skein evidently foreshadows a general contraction of the chromatin mat- 
ters into an irregular mass surrounding the nucleolus, a contracted con- 
dition apparently the same as the synapsis condition or stage which 
occurs normally in the reducing division in the formation of the pollen 
grains of various plants. Its occurrence in this stage of the develop- 
ment of the spermatozoids or germ cells of Zama is thus of particular 
interest. This contracted condition of the nucleus in Zama hes been 
observed in a number of instances in some of the very best fixed and 
