58 SUMMARY OP CURRENT RESEARCHES RELATING TO 
B. CBYPTOGAMIA. 
Cryptogamia Vascularia. 
Fertilisation of Onoclea.* — Mr. W. E. Shaw lias investigated the 
process of impregnation in Onoclea sensibilis and 0. Struthiopteris, with 
the following results. The anthcrozoids arc held in large numbers in 
the mucilage at the mouth of the archegone, and remain unchanged for 
a long period. Long before the archegone opens, the egg-cell comes to 
the resting condition, and contains one or more nucleoles. The anthero- 
zoids lose their vesicles on first entering the mucilage. Very shortly 
after the entrance of the antherozoids into the archegone, the canal is 
closed by the expansion of the four proximal neck-cells and the four just 
beyond them. 
The body of the free antherozoid consists of a long corkscrew-shaped 
nucleus which stains homogeneously, and a lateral band of cytoplasm 
which extends a short distance in front of the nucleus. The sperm- 
nucleus enters the egg-nucleus before it changes in form or visible 
structure. Within the egg-nucleus the chromatin-granules of the 
sperm-nucleus slowly separate as the meshes of the linin-network enlarge. 
Throughout the process of fertilisation the female nucleus remains in 
the resting condition. The first division of the egg was in no case found 
until more than a week after fertilisation. 
Blepharoplasts of Onoclea and Marsilia.f — Mr. W. E. Shaw finds 
that, in Onoclea Struthiopteris and Marsilia vestita, the blepharoplasts 
originate, not in the spermatids (the mother-cells of the antherozoids), 
as stated by Belajeff, but in the mother-cells of the spermatids. They 
remain in the neighbourhood of the spindle-pole during the whole of the 
cell-division which leads to the formation of the spermatids. They are 
not identical with the centrosomes found in other classes of plants. In 
Marsilia the formation of tho blepharoplasts is preceded by the appear- 
ance, in the mother-cells of the spermatids, of peculiar bodies, termed 
by the author blepharoplastoids , resembling the blepharoplasts, but dis- 
appearing after a short existence. 
In Onoclea sensibilis each antlierid forms 16, or more often 32 
spermatids. The blepharoplasts move from two opposite points of the 
cell towards the nucleus, and appear to increase equally in size. They 
are spherical, and without any visible structure ; they probably remain 
in the neighbourhood of the spindle-pole during the whole process of 
division. 
Muscinese. 
Cyathophorum pennatum.J — Sig. U. Brizi publishes a detailed ac- 
count of the biology and morphology of this Australian moss, a sapro- 
phyte growing in humus at the base of tree-ferns, which can also live as 
a parasite. There is a sharp differentiation between the aerial stem and 
the underground rhizome, especially in the structure of the epiderm. 
* Ann. of Bot., xii. (1898) pp. 261-85 (1 pi.). 
t Ber. Deutscb. Bot. Gesell., xvi. (1898) pp. 177-84 (1 pi.). Cf. this Journal, 
1898, p. 550. 
X Ann. r. 1st. Bot. Roma, vi. (1897) pp. 275-369. See Bot. Centralbl,. lxxvi. 
(1898) p. 93. 
