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in the Pollen-Mot her- Ceils of Larix . 
considers abnormal. Spindle-formation from polar caps is 
found in the meristem of Psilotum by Rosen (’95), in vege- 
tative tissues of Equisetum , Aspidium and Alsophila by Nemec 
(’98 a, ’98 b, ’99 a), and in vegetative cells of Aspidium by Hof 
(’98). Central bodies have been described in the Pterido- 
phytes by numerous observers.; but the evidence for and 
against their existence here is practically the same as in 
the case of the Seed Plants, and here as in the higher group 
the preponderance seems to be on the negative side of the 
argument, 
A peculiar form of quadripolar spindle, suggestive of the 
multipolar figures already described, is found by Farmer (’94, 
’95 a, ’95 b, 95 c), in certain Hepaticae whose spores are 
formed by the division of the mother-cell into four lobes. In 
Pallavicinia he finds that four daughter-nuclei are formed 
simultaneously, one at each of the poles ; but in other cases 
the original poles approximate in pairs to form either a sharply 
bipolar spindle or one with forked ends, and the division 
results in two daughter-nuclei, each of which again divides. 
Davis (’01) finds a quadripolar figure in Pellia , but he interprets 
it as a stage in spindle development in which a fibrous extra- 
nuclear weft takes this peculiar shape in consequence of the 
lobing of the cell. He (’99) also finds a felted stage in the 
developing spindle in the spore-mother-cell of Anthoceros , 
followed apparently by a multipolar, then by a bipolar stage. 
Centrospheres and centrosomes have been described in a 
number of liverworts. 
The only case of spindle-formation reported among the 
Thallophytes which seems to conform to the multipolar type 
is in the vegetative cells of Chara, described by Debski (’98). 
The bipolar spindle develops, through stages which he, did 
not follow, from a central fibrous system ; the latter is partly 
of nuclear and partly of cytoplasmic origin. This isolated 
case emphasizes the width of the gulf that seems to separate 
the Characeae from other Thallophytes. Central bodies 
which take part in spindle-formation, which divide, and, in 
some cases at least, persist through the resting stage, have 
