394 
PROCEEDINGS OF THE SOCIETY. 
liow thoroughly the point was covered by the photographs. He believed 
that it was by studying the subject in this way and watching the earliest 
development in the various forms that more would be done to establish 
a true knowledge of these organisms than by examining any quantity of 
mature specimens. He thought Mr. Comber had entered upon a line 
of research which gave very great promise of valuable results. 
Miss Ethel Sargant’s paper on “ The First Nuclear Division in the 
Pollen-Mother-Cells of Lilium Martagon , &c.,” was communicated to the 
meeting by Dr. Scott, who, after expressing his regret that the rules of 
the Society did not permit the writer of the paper to read it in person, 
said that he had followed her work in this direction for the last two 
years, and was able to say that it was of the highest order of merit. 
He then gave a full resume of the contents of the paper, freely illus- 
trating the subject by numerous diagrams upon the board, showing the 
nuclear spindle and the divisions of the chromosomes, with the peculiar 
forms most commonly assumed, with the object of showing how the 
Y shape was attained, the question being whether this did not result 
from a second incomplete fission at right angles to the first ; or whether, 
as Miss Sargant maintained, the Y shape was entirely due to bending 
of the segments. 
Prof. J. B. Farmer said he had listened with great pleasure and 
much interest to Dr. Scott’s explanation of the methods of cell- division 
as detailed in the paper before the meeting, although he did not agree 
altogether as to the conclusions formed. He had seen a number of 
Miss Sargant’s preparations, and they were certainly very good. At 
the same time it was obvious that in forming an opinion a great 
deal necessarily depended upon the interpretation put upon what was 
seen, because since they could not see the changes take place, they 
were obliged to draw inferences from what they observed as the results 
of those changes. He had himself followed up the subject upon 
much the same lines in a paper published in 1894, taking in the first 
instance Lilium Martagon , and checking the results by similar observa- 
tions on five other species of lilies, of which he found Lilium auratum 
to give the best results. The process of cell-division began either at 
one end or in the middle and went on towards the ends of the 
anthers, so that it was possible to trace the progress of development 
and to check the results by the examination of a very large amount 
of material. It was quite true that in the division which formed the 
pollen-mother-cell first into two and then into four, up to that stage 
each had twenty-four chromosomes, but at that stage the nucleus came 
out of rest with twelve chromosomes, a very complicated set of changes 
taking place during the period preceding the twelve. No matter how 
they looked at it, they would always have a beaded row like [diagram 
drawn]. It was quite certain that they got these figures; they were 
quite common and were easily seen, especially in Lilium speciosum and 
Lilium tigrinum, and in the early stage they always showed two rows of 
chromatin beads. With regard to the proportions in which it had been 
said that the several forms occurred, he thought the incurved form was 
not nearly so common as had been represented by Miss Sargant, and the 
opinion expressed as to the further development in which the incurved 
