292 Lawson . — The Gametophytes and Embryo of the 
granules from that of the egg-cells in contact with the nourishing jacket-cells. 
It therefore seems rational to assume that the manner of transference of food 
substances from egg-cell to egg-cell is the same as that from jacket-cell to 
e gg" ce k. In the thin walls separating the egg-cells from each other I was 
unable to detect any evidence of pits or perforations, and I therefore believe 
that all food substances carried into the egg are translocated in soluble 
form. In this connexion it may be worth while calling attention to the fact 
that a large vacuole, situated just below the egg-nucleus, is a constant 
character of the archegonium of all of the Cupressineae which I have 
examined (see Figs. 16, 20, and 25). It seems not improbable that the 
osmotic activities which these vacuoles must necessarily set up have much 
to do with the absorption of food substances in solution from the surrounding 
endosperm, and also from egg-cell to egg-cell. The sum total of the osmotic 
activities set up by twenty or more large, closely situated vacuoles must be 
considerable. In the Cupressineae, however, the archegonia and the manner 
of their grouping are highly specialized, and it is therefore not surprising to 
find the method of their nutrition somewhat different from such primitive 
types as the Cycads, Gmkgo , or the Abietineae. 
Fertilization. 
In the Podocarpeae (Coker, ’02), Taxeae (Jager, ’99 ; Belajeff, ’93 ; 
Robertson, ’04 ; Lawson, ’07), and Abietineae (Blackman, ’98 ; Coulter and 
Chamberlain, ’01 ; Ferguson, ’01) the archegonia are few in number, and are 
not grouped closely together, but each is separated from its neighbour by 
prothallial tissue, and each possesses a small independent archegonial 
chamber leading to the neck. When the pollen-tube reaches one of these 
archegonial chambers its entire contents are discharged into the archegonium, 
and it is thus possible for only one archegonium to be fertilized by one 
pollen-tube — or in other words, only one of the two male gametes can be 
functional. The effect of this arrangement of the archegonia finds an 
expression in the form of the male gametes. For instance, in Podocarpus 
(Coker, ’02) these structures are represented by a large male cell and 
a dwarfed male nucleus which does not function. In Taxus (Jager, ’99), and 
also in Torreya taxifolia (Coulter and Land, ’05), there are two male 
cells organized, but one of them is much smaller than the other, and only 
the latter is functional. In Cephalotaxus (Lawson, ’07) the male gametes are 
reduced to nuclei, both of which enter the archegonium, but only one unites 
with the egg-nucleus. In Pice a and Abies (Miyake, ’03), and also in Pinns 
(Ferguson, ’01), the male cells are likewise represented only by nuclei, but in 
these forms the sperm nuclei are of unequal size, and it is only the larger 
one which is functional. 
When we come to the Cupressineae, however, we find that the arche- 
gonia are grouped together in a single complex, with their necks exposed 
