Harper . — Cell-Division in Sporangia and Asci. 485 
segments around the inside surface of the sporangium-wall. 
The remaining segments are not evenly distributed, but are 
gathered in clumps which stick together and press upon each 
other even to the extent of giving the normally spherical 
segments a polygonal outline. Frequently there is one large 
central clump of segments, and between this and the surface 
layer appears the emulsion-like oily liquid mentioned. I have 
spoken of this liquid as thrown off by the protoplasm by 
a process of drying, connected with ripening. Why it should 
contain oily matter is not apparent. It perhaps should be 
mentioned that it is not at all protoplasmic in its apparent 
nature, and cannot in any sense be compared with the 
epiplasm of the ascus or the periplasm of the oogonium of 
the Peronosporeae. It is apparent already that the method 
of spore-formation by constriction from the surface, as we find 
it in Synchitrium , precludes the possibility of a true periplasm 
in these forms. With the stage shown in Fig. 6 the process 
of cleavage is completed, and the uninucleated plasma masses 
so produced may be taken as typical vegetative spores homo- 
logous with those of Saprolegnia , and the process as repre- 
senting typical asexual reproduction. Still their formation 
marks the completion of only the first stage of development 
of the reproductive bodies of Synchitrium decipiens. This 
first stage has been a process of cleavage, by which the multi- 
nucleated secondarily developed vegetative body of the fungus 
has passed back for purposes of reproduction to the primitive 
uninucleated condition. The bodies so formed may be called 
protospores. We now find a second series of changes initiated 
in the sporangium, sharply distinguished from the cleavage 
processes, and which I think we shall see are to be considered 
as initiatory stages in the germination of the bodies formed by 
cleavage. The first step in this second stage of intrasporangial 
development consists in a growth or swelling of the proto- 
spores. This proceeds until the primordial cell-wall is com- 
pletely filled once more with its protoplasmic contents, as it 
was in earlier stages prior to cleavage. The segments as 
a result of this growth become pressed together, and take on 
K k % 
