The Behaviour of the Chromatin in the Meiotic 
Divisions of Vicia Faba. 
BY 
H. C. I. FRASER, D.Sc., F.L.S. 
(Mrs. GWYNNE- VAUGHAN), 
Head of the Department of Botany, Birkheck College , London. 
With Plates XLIXI and XLIV. 
I N 19 1 1 an account was published of the vegetative mitoses in Vicia 
Faba ( 4 ), in which it was shown that, alike in the sporophytic and 
gametophytic divisions, longitudinal fission takes place in the telophase 
and persists through the resting stages till it is completed on the spindle 
of the following division. In the last premeiotic telophase (that is to say, 
in the initiation of the spore mother nucleus), as in those of other vegetative 
divisions, longitudinal fission of the daughter chromosomes occurs, and it has 
appeared worth while to connect this division with the mitoses already 
studied in the pollen grain, by tracing the longitudinal fission through the 
meiotic phase. The great simplicity of some of the stages in the Bean, 
serving, as it does, as clear and easily obtainable demonstration material, 
may further justify an account of this often investigated stage. 
Plants of Carter’s ‘ Monarch’ were grown in the summer of 1910 by 
my former colleague, Mr. Snell, in a garden at Penge, and in 1911 at the 
Chelsea Physic Garden, under the direction of Mr. W. Hales, whom I desire 
to thank for his care in this connexion. 
The buds were fixed between 11 a.m. and 2.30 p.m., mainly on sunny 
days. Various media were used, of which Flemming’s strong fluid, diluted 
with an equal quantity of water, proved the most successful. Sections were 
cut from 5 /oi to 1 5 /x in thickness, and were stained for the most part with 
the combination of Breinl, which gives excellent results on this material. 
Development was studied both in the micro- and in the megasporangium, 
and while, for the sake of uniformity, it has seemed preferable to restrict 
the figures and description to the former, it may be noted that the main 
facts have been confirmed in the latter also. 
[Annals of Botany, Vol. XXVIII. No. CXII. October, 1914.] 
