On the Essential Similarity of the Process 
of Chromosome Reduction in Animals 
and Plants. 
BY 
J. E. S. MOORE, A.R.C.S. 
I N his recent and adverse criticism of Prof. Strasburger’s 1 2 
suggestion that the process of chromosome reduction 
is probably similar in both animals and plants, Dr. Haecker * 
appears to rely exclusively on the zoological observations 
relative to this subject which are contained in the works of 
Riickert, vom Rath, and himself. 
It should, however, be remembered that in the work entitled 
Befruchtung, published in the Ergebnisse for 1891, Boveri 3 
concludes the paragraphs which deal critically with some of 
the very papers on which Dr. Haecker has attempted to rest 
his plea for the universal existence of the ‘ Reductionstheilung,’ 
in the following words : ‘ Durch die vorstehenden Erorterungen 
glaube ich gezeigt zu haben, dass zwar gewisse Vorgange be- 
schrieben worden sind, die vielleicht mit der Chromosomen- 
reduction in Zusammenhang stehen, dass uns aber eine 
wirkliche Einsicht in diesen Vorgang bis jetzt fehlt. Es bleibt 
weiteren Forschungen vorbehalten, dieses Dunkel aufzuklaren.’ 
It is obvious that the eminent cytologist of Munich does not 
view the universal existence of a 4 Reductionstheilung ’ as any- 
1 Ann. of Bot., Vol. viii, 1894, p. 281. 
2 The reduction of the Chromosomes in the sexual cells as described by botanists. 
Ann. of Bot., Vol. ix, 1895, p. 95. 
3 Ergebnisse der Anat. und Entwickelungsgeschichte, Bd. I. 1891, pp. 425, 467. 
[Annals of Botany, Vol. IX. No. XXXV. September, 1895.] 
H h 2 
