NOTE. 
SPORE-FORMATION AND KARYOKINESIS IN HEPA- 
TICAE. — In pursuing a series of investigations on spore-formation in 
the Hepaticae, I find the existence of a quadripolar spindle in the early 
stages of the division of the spore-mother-cell to be a more widely 
spread occurrence than I had previously supposed when writing on 
Pallavicinici h 
Two species of Fossombroma exhibit this curious spindle in 
a marked degree. The first sign of the division of the nucleus of the 
cell in question does not occur until the latter has assumed the lobed 
character which is common to the Jungermannia - series of Liverworts. 
The initial phase of mitosis is marked by the appearance, on the 
periphery of the nucleus, of four beautiful centrospheres with their 
attendant radiations. Thus a four-armed spindle arises. But the 
division of the nucleus is not a simultaneous partition into four 
daughter-nuclei; two daughter-nuclei are first formed, and each of 
these again divides once more. Essentially the same process takes 
place in Aneura. In Pellia a well-marked cell-wall is formed during 
the first of the two mitoses, but otherwise there is a substantial agree- 
ment between the three forms just mentioned. 
In those foliose Jungermannieae in which I have succeeded in 
following out the details of spore-formation, I have seen a quadripolar 
spindle in a few instances ; a normal double division in any case takes 
place. There exists a considerable range of variation amongst the 
various forms, as to the degree of rapidity with which the tw r o mitoses 
follow on each other. 
In the alliances of the Marchantieae and Riccieae, the form of 
division of the spore-mother-cells differs considerably from the corre- 
sponding process in those Jungermannieae, both foliose and frondose, 
which I have examined. The cell never becomes four-lobed, and a rapid 
1 Annals of Botany, Vol. ix, p. 35, 1894. 
C C 
