4 
The Ohio Naturalist. 
[Vol. XIII, No. 1, 
was connected at many points but in time it is easily seen that a 
true spirem is being formed. During the main part of the con¬ 
traction the knot is so close that it is difficult to see any of the 
structure. Usually there are threads sticking out at the edge of 
the knot. During the process the thread of the spirem is short¬ 
ened. He thinks the contraction is due to this shortening of the 
threads of the reticulum as it goes to make up the spirem. The 
forms of the “synaptic” knot are varied. When the knot loosens 
the chromatin material is seen to be in the form of seven bivalent 
chromosomes, which have assumed the form of rings some being 
linked together. These rings, he says, remain together until the 
two halves of the bivalent rings are pulled apart on the spindle. 
In the second paper(3) he states definitely that he believes the 
dark staining masses formed on the perifery of nucleus and con¬ 
nected with one another by delicate threads to be the “prochro¬ 
mosomes” described by Overton (17) but he says there is no 
evidence that they are arranged side by side in pairs on a system 
of threads that might be interpreted as two parallel spirems. 
The chromatin bodies are scattered throughout the nucleus but 
where ever there are two together they lie end to end upon a 
delicate strand that runs in the direction of the longer axes. The 
nucleus after considerable time, becomes filled with a close reticu¬ 
lum at which stage the chromatin bodies can only be distinguished 
with difficulty. He found some differences in the method of 
chromosome formation from that described in his first paper. 
The knot loosens and a shorter thicker thread emerges. This 
spirem is then constricted into a chain of fourteen chromosomes. 
A longitudinal split becomes apparent just before the heterotypic 
chromosomes reach the poles. 
In Erythronium, Schaffner (19) finds the chromatin material 
going into synizesis—a term used to designate the contraction as 
being a separate thing from the fusion of the chromatin. This 
contraction he considers to be an artifact. After synizesis he 
finds the formation of a spirem which by twisting, forms loops all 
around the nuclear wall. There then occur breaks between the 
loops. The loops continue to twist until the chromosomes are 
fully formed. The chromosomes are described as having quite 
distinctive shapes. 
In Lilium tigrinum (20) he found a continuous spirem with 
a single row of chromatin granules. This spirem enters synizesis 
and comes out of it without a conjugation or a division of granules. 
Later on the granules divide but the linen thread does not show a 
distinct separation. The continuous spirem shortens, thickens, 
and twists into twelve loops which break into twelve chromosomes. 
These chromosomes are attached to the spindle fibres in the 
mother star at or near the end and during the reduction the chro¬ 
mosomes uncoil and separate by a transverse division at the 
