DIVISION OF THE CENTRAL CELL. 4] 
its place throughout the nucleus, while the chromatin and linin ele- 
ments are concerned in the formation of the spiral band. This hyaline 
plasm may probably be considered the nuclear sap or hyaloplasm which 
forms the ground substance of the nucleus. But it is certainly 
arranged in a reticulum, while the hyaloplasm or nuclear sap might 
be expected to fill the entire space. The chromatin and linin elements 
alone seem to be directly concerned in the formation of the spirem 
stage which follows, though this can only be conjectured. The gran- 
ules which are observable in the stainable portion of the nucleus while 
in this condition are of two kinds. The larger ones, which are round 
or elliptical in form and quite regular in outline, stain red with saf- 
ranin in the Flemming triple-stain process, and have the same struc- 
tural appearance as nucleolar matter, and, as they disappear later in 
the development of the chromatin spirem, it is probable that they are 
some form of reserve food matter which is used up in the further pro- 
cess of development. The other granules stain a deep purple-like 
ehromatin, and are probably of this nature, as they appear to forma 
part of the chromatin spirem, which can be observed in process of 
formation in the synapsis condition. By a careful study of the coarsely 
granular stainable mass of the nucleus in this stage it can be discerned, 
particularly in the outer portion of the mass, that the smaller protein 
granules are arranged in chains, which are contorted and tangled 
together so closely that the arrangement can not easily be made out. 
The synapsis condition of the nucleus has been observed by numer- 
ous investigators, among them Strasburger (108, figs. 3, 66), Farmer 
(33, p. +73), Calkins (18, p 105, fig. 3), Sargent (96), Duggar (29, p. 82), 
Davis (26, p. 96), etc. Its occurrence is now so widely known that 
there would seem to be no doubt that it is a perfectly normal stage in 
certain nuclear divisions. In this stage (fig. 30) the blepharoplast, which 
has become elliptical in most cases, remains apparently unchanged. The 
radiations of kinoplasm are very abundant, as in preceding stages. The 
cytoplasm ‘presents a fine reticular structure, the kinoplasmic threads 
corresponding with the network of the cytoplasm, being nearly straight 
in the vicinity of the blepharoplast and more or less waved after reced- 
ing some distance from it. Scattered here and there in the cytoplasm 
are numerous perfectly round globules, staining exactly the same as 
the rest of the network of cytoplasm, but seeming to lie between the 
meshes of the reticulum. They would seem to be excretionary gran- 
ules of some sort (metaplasm), but their origin and nature have not 
been followed out. 
The above sequence of stages in the prophases of division seem to 
the writer to be the most probable interpretation, but he feels that the 
matter is still in some doubt. 
The next stage in the division which the writer has been able to 
observe is when the nucleus is in one of the closing prophases of 
