The Somatic Mitoses in Hyacinthus orientalis 
var. albulus. 
ß y 
I). Carruthers, B. Sc. 
With Plate XX. 
The material for the present work was obtained front bulbs of the 
White Roman hyacinth grown in fibre, or water, during the winter 
1911—12. The root tips were fixed for the most part in Flemming’s 
stronger solution, diluted with an equal quantity of water, some, how- 
ever, were treated with the undiluted solution; the results were almost 
identical in the two cases. Sections were cut front 5—10 /< in thickness 
and stained with various contbinations, including Heidenhain’s iron- 
haematoxylin followed by licht grün, Flemming’s triple stain, and 
Breinl’s stain. The last is by far the the most satisfactory, the chro- 
matin being more transparent than when stained with haematoxylin. 
The Resting nucleus. In the resting condition the nucleus 
shows a fine reticular structure, with denser knots at intervals, the whole 
suggesting a foundation of linin on whiclt the chromatin is spread irre- 
gularly (Fig. 1). Usually one large nucleolus occurs, but sontetimes this 
is replaced by two sntaller ones. 
There is a considerable difference in the size of the nuclei, according to 
the part of the root in which they are situated (Figs. 1, 2, 14, 15) but the size 
of the full-grown cell and nucleus for any one position is fairly constant. 
In the early prophase the reticulum becomes more homogeneous, 
the chromatin spreading from the knots to form a fine network over 
the whole of the nuclear circumference (Fig. 2). At this stage there is 
no sign of pro-chromosomes, or of aggregations of chromatin of any kind 
which may be regarded as foreshadowing the chromosomes, such as liave 
been recorded by some authors in Thalictrum (Overton ’09) and I Heia 
(Sharp T3).. The network is at first close and fine, and when it thickens 
it does so to the same extent over the whole nucleus, giving no indication 
of denser portions which might represent special structures. The reti- 
culum gradually thickens, still retaining its homogeneous character, and 
the nucleus at this stage stains very deeply (Fig. 3). 
