29 1905 
The Ohio T^atiiralist, 
PUBLISHED BY 
The Biological Club of the Ohio State Uni’versity. 
Volume V. MAY. 1905. No. 7 
TABLE OF CONTENTS 
ycHAFFNEK— The Xnture of the Keduction Division and Related Phenomena 3.3r 
Fischer— List of Oliio Plant.s with Compound Leaves 340 
York — Tlie Aftar-.^gar and Parailin Jlethod for Imbedding Plant Tissues 344 
COTTOK — Life History Notes on .\pion nigrum 346 
CcsHjiAN — A Few Ohio Desmids 349 
Jones— Memorial of the Ohio Academy of Science on the Death of Prof. Wright. . 351 
SUKF.VCE — Meeting of tlie Biological Club 352 
THE NATURE OF THE REDUCTION DIVISION AND RELATED 
PHENOMENA. 
John H. Schaffner. 
It is generally conceded that the primitive plants and animals 
were nonsexual. In the primordial life of the earth no conjuga- 
tion of any kind took place. Some organisms have come 
through all the geological ages in this primitive condition but 
the great majority even of the lowest forms have acquired some 
type of sexuality and retained it while a considerable number 
have no doubt fallen back from a sexual to a nonsexual condi- 
tion. If the process of sexual conjugation of cells is then not a 
primitive property or function of protoplasm various questions 
naturally suggest themselves. 
1. What caused the original nonsexual forms to develop the 
sexual process? 
2. What disturbances were introduced in the life cycle of 
the organism and in the cell activity? 
3. In what ways were the new life cycles established? 
4. How do the life cycles of plants compare with those of 
animals ? 
5. What significance does the reduction division have in the 
higher forms? 
In most plants conjugation takes place between two naked 
gametes, and it is probable that such specialized types of sex- 
uality as are present in the Conjugatae and Phycomycetes orig- 
inated from the more typical gamete conjugations. We can 
readilv believe that all the Archeophyta were naked cells and 
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