298 
Notes. 
attached to Cordaitean shoots. The same feature is to be observed with suspicious 
constancy in a number of detached Palaeozoic seeds which have for good reasons 
been attributed to the Cordaitales, and it may safely be regarded as a strong 
Cordaitalean characteristic. 1 
Fig. 1 is from a longitudinal section prepared from a seed of Cephaloiaxus 
pedunculata after removal of the integument and all but the apical region of the 
female prothallus. Fig. 2 represents the corresponding parts (and a portion of the 
integument) in Cycadinocarpus augusiodunejisis ; it has been inserted to facilitate 
a comparison between the recent and fossil seeds. A fairly well developed tent-pole 
is seen in Fig. 1 ; the position of the archegonia corresponds with that in Fig. 2, but 
at the stage examined a proembryo had already been formed in the position marked 
by a cross. 
The presence of a tent-pole in Cephaloiaxus pedunculata naturally suggests that this 
organ should be looked for elsewhere in the group. In 1905 Coulter and Land 2 pub- 
lished a figure of Torreya taxifolia , Arnott, in which the female prothallus shows a very 
striking cone-like apex : it would be interesting to know whether this may be 
homologized with a tent-pole. It is not unlikely that a search for this organ may 
prove successful in other members of the group. 
B. SAHNI. 
School of Botany, 
Panjab University, Lahore, 
December 14, 1920. 
DIVISION OF THE NUCLEI IN SYNCH YTRIUM ENDOBIOTICUM, PERC. 
— The life-history and mode of infection of Synchytrium endobioticum , a problem 
which has baffled a number of previous students, has recently been fully investigated 
by K. M. Curtis (‘ Phil. Trans. Roy. Soc., ’ Ser. B, vol. ccx, p. 409). 
The protoplasm of the resting sporangium of this organism is unusually dense, 
being crowded with deeply staining granules, and Curtis was unable to observe 
mitosis in connexion with the development of zoospores in the sporangium although 
mitosis was clearly recognized during the corresponding stages in the sorus. She 
was led to the conclusion that in the resting sporangium the primordia of the 
zoospores arise from chromatic granules discharged by the primary nucleus. 
While making microscopic observations of this organism, in connexion with the 
problem of immunity, I had recently occasion to investigate the effect of various 
fixatives ; among these Perenyi s fluid was employed and was found, probably owing 
to its poor fixation, to leave the normally dense cytoplasm in a transparent condition. 
As a result I was so fortunate as to be able to observe very definite mitoses in 
a developing resting sporangium which showed six dividing nuclei. Five of these 
are represented in the accompanying figure, the sixth was found in the adjacent 
1 See the works of Ad. Brongniart and of C. E. Bertrand cited in my paper on Taxus above 
referred to. Also Seward, Fossil Plants, iii. 333, 1917 ; Coulter and Chamberlain, Morphology of 
Gymnosperms, p. 197. 
2 Coulter and Land : Gametophytes and Embryo of Torreya taxifolia. Bot. Gaz., xxxix, 
PL A, Fig. 5, 1905. 
