Note on the number of the Somatic chromosomes 
in Funkia. 
By. 
M. G. Sykes. 
Girton College, Cambridge, & Bathurst Student of Newnham College, Cambridge. 
With plate XVI. 
Strasburger *) gives the number of chromosomes in the somatic 
nuclei of Funkia as twenty-four, the same number being also present 
during the reduction division. He notes the fact tliat greater diffe- 
rences in the sizes of the chromosomes are found in the latter case, 
and thinks it possible that twelve is really the reduced number, while 
some of the smaller chromosomes actually found are formed from 
larger ones by fragmentation. 
An examination of some of the somatic nuclei in my preparations 
of Funkia ovata and Funkia sieboldiana suggested to me that in these 
cases more than twenty-four chromosomes were present, and, since 
this point appeared to be of some small interest, I have carefully 
studied these and other examples. It is not easy to count the somatic 
chromosomes in this genus; the nuclei are so large that they are 
generally continuous through two or three of my sectious, and, as 
the longer chromosomes are often cut into two or more pieces, it 
is extremely difficult to distinguish between these pieces and the 
complete small chromosomes. The early archesporial divisions were 
J ) Strasburger; Über Reduktionsteilung, 1900, S. 45; Die Ontogenie der 
Zelle, Prog. rei. bot. I. 1. 1907, Fig. 28; Pringsheims Jahrbuch, 1905; S. 16 — 17. 
Archiv f. Zellforschung. I. 35 
