499 
in the Hymenomycetes. 
The lower portion of the nuclear membrane now becomes 
indistinct and finally disappears, so that both the nucleolus 
and the chromatic elements now stand free in the protoplasm. 
For some time, however, a slightly clearer space can be made 
out around the nucleolus, which probably represents the old 
cavity of the nucleus, not yet completely filled up by the 
dense cytoplasm. 
The chromatic elements are extremely small and might 
easily be mistaken for large protoplasmic granules, especially 
in badly stained specimens ; but as they stain very deeply and 
of a slightly different colour from the protoplasm, they can 
be easily distinguished, and are in fact by far the most con- 
spicuous objects in the basidium at this stage. We may regard 
this group of bright red chromatic elements as the equatorial 
plate. 
The details just described agree in the main with those 
which take place in A. muscarius, but owing to the less dense 
nature of the protoplasm in the latter, the origin of the group 
of chromatic elements which forms the equatorial plate, can be 
traced more easily to the original chromatin-network of the 
nucleus : we shall find that the formation of these chromatic 
elements corresponds in all essential details with the formation 
of the chromatic elements in the higher plants and animals. 
The nucleus first of all, as in A. stercorarius , increases in 
size. The chromatin-network then breaks up into a number 
of slightly curved segments, in which both the original struc- 
ture of the thread and its behaviour towards the carmine- 
nigrosin stain are for a time preserved (Fig. 35). The nucleolus 
remains unchanged during this segmentation of the nuclear 
thread. The chromatin-segments very soon become shorter 
and thicker and more sharply and irregularly curved. The 
original structure of the thread disappears ; the chromatin- 
granules become indistinct and probably fuse together, until at 
last each segment becomes transformed into a crumpled, 
homogeneous mass which still stains deep blue (Fig. 36). 
These irregular masses gradually condense into irregularly 
shaped, bright, refractive granules (Fig. 37). In this condition 
L 1 
