Harper. — Cell- Division in Sporangia and Asci. 509 
the spongy plasma, beyond the dense special spore-plasma. 
They are straight, unbranched and fine through their whole 
length. Some are much longer than others, and these longer 
rays, as they pass between the vacuoles of the spongy plasma, 
modify the shape of the latter noticeably. The vacuoles are 
pinched into a slightly ovoidal shape with flattened sides, the 
narrowed end being directed toward the centre of the aster, 
indicating that the system of rays is of some rigidity as 
compared with the other structures in the protoplasm. This 
deformation of the vacuoles is especially apparent where the 
rays pass from the denser spore-plasma into the foamy proto- 
plasm below it. The appearance is given here as if the dense 
plasma was carried out around the rays as a rapidly narrowing 
sheath for each, suggesting that the rays have pushed forward 
from the dense plasma into the foamy plasma as the daughter 
nuclei separated, and that the dense protoplasm adhered to 
them and was carried along a certain distance. The connecting 
fibres, the old nucleoli, and the dense chromatin-masses of the 
daughter nuclei appear here essentially as in Peziza Steven- 
soniana. Abundant fine red- staining granules are scattered 
throughout the protoplasm, analogous to the so-called extra- 
nuclear nucleoli of cells in the higher plants. 
In the earlier stages of division of the ascus-nucleus of 
Lachnea I have found nothing to add to my previous accounts. 
Also the reconstruction of the daughter nuclei proceeds in 
Lachnea essentially as in Peziza Stevensoniana , except that 
the polar rays continue for some time after the diaster stage, 
and there is no appearance of a disk-like central body on the 
equatorial side of the daughter nucleus. Figures 37, 38, 39 
show stages in the nuclear divisions that follow and give the 
appearance and distribution of the protoplasm in the upper 
third of the ascus during these stages. 
Figure 39 shows the equatorial plate stage of the division 
of the first two daughter nuclei. It is seen here, as is frequently 
the case in Lachnea , that the long axis of the spindle does not 
lie in the long axis of the ascus, though it quite regularly takes 
that position in Peziza Stevensoniana. Fig. 40 shows a diaster 
