THE MEIOTIC CYTOKINESIS OF NELUMBO 
Clifford H. Farr 
(Received for publication November 3, 192 1) 
The division of the cell is a phase of cytology which has proved to have a 
wide application to other branches of biological science. The division of 
the nucleus through the phenomena of karyokinesis and other chromatin 
behaviors has been found to be of direct importance to the subject of ge- 
netics. The partitioning of the cell, or cytokinesis, has on the other hand 
throwii light on the dynamics of the cell and cell physiology and is also closely 
related to growth, a very important phase of physiological investigation. 
The recognition of the fact that growth embraces not only cell enlargement, 
but cell division and cell differentiation, and also, in the multicellular organ- 
ism, intercellular stresses and strains, warrants a renewed attack upon the 
field of cytokinesis. I. W. Bailey (1-5) has recently been making an exten- 
sive study of cell-plate formation in the cambium, and has shown very 
clearly how cell-plate formation may be adapted to the longitudinal division, 
of very much elongated cells. Another line of investigation of cytokinesis 
in plants has been the establishment of the existence of cell division without 
cell plates but by a furrowing process in the formation of the microspores 
of certain Angiosperms. This was demonstrated by the writer first in 
Nicotiana, Primula, HeHanthus, Ambrosia, Tropaeolum, and Chrysan- 
themum (6), and later in Magnolia (7) and Sisyrinchium, a monocotyledon 
(8). Mrs. W. K. Farr has also found the same procedure in Cobaea (9). 
While the writer's first paper (6) was in press, Tahara (20) published a 
paper entitled "Cytological Studies on Chrysanthemum" in which he 
states that 
At the end of the meiotic nuclear division, the new partition cell walls appear in the 
form of protuberances in the inner surface of the cell wall of the pollen mother cells. These 
protuberances proceed centripetally and constrict the pollen mother cell into- four equal 
portions. This type of tetrad division reminds us of the type of tetrad division of the tet- 
raspores in Rhodophyceae. 
No further description or discussion is given, and no figures of these 
stages appear in that paper. He does not state that a cell plate is absent, 
nor does he discuss the relation of the plasma membrane to the procCvSS. 
His statements given above, however, make it clear that he considers it a 
genuine furrowing and not simply a rounding up of the cells after division. 
Very recently Tahara (21) has published again on this subject, this time 
including six text figures of quadripartition in Chrysanthemum. These 
figures resemble very closely the figures which I published of Nicotiana (6), 
but he does not refer to any of my papers. He distinguishes three types 
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