Helvetia crisp a, Fries . 249 
into line with the process as described by Farmer and Moore and by 
subsequent workers for a great number of plants. 
On any supposition other than the reappearance of a previous fission, 
the cleft ends of the chromosomes on the first spindle must be recognized as 
the manifestation of an entirely new development. 
A comparison of the chromosomes on the heterotype spindle before and 
after the separation of the limbs leaves little doubt that transverse separa- 
tion has occurred. On this view the heterotype division is to be regarded 
as interpolated into the stages of an ordinary karyokinesis, and the re- 
appearance of the split is therefore to be expected. 
The third or brachymeiotic division differs from meiosis in its greater 
simplicity and brevity. In Helvetia no contraction takes place, and the 
process is very possibly to be regarded as merely the separation of the 
nuclei which fused in the ascogenous hypha. 
The occurrence of brachymeiosis has been questioned by Strasburger, 
who accepts Claussen’s ( 1 ) view that there is only one fusion, that in the 
ascus, and that this is the completion of a sexual process between two nuclei 
which have been long associated. Such a theory necessarily precludes the 
recognition of a double reduction in the ascus. The evidence concerning 
the absence of a previous fusion is, however, only negative, and so many 
cases have been recorded among the Ascomycetes of a sexual followed 
by an asexual fusion, as to make it evident that this state of things 
is normal. 
Such forms as Helvetia, with an apogamous and an asexual fusion, 
exhibit a readily comprehensible reduction from the typical sexual process. 
Each new instance of two successive fusions forms a further corroboration 
of brachymeiosis. 
Ti-ie { Chromatin Bodies ’. 
The ejection of chromatic substance from the nucleus during the early 
stages of meiosis was described by Digby ( 3 ) in 1909 for Galtonia candicans. 
In Galtonia the bodies arise either as nucleolar buds which are later 
infiltrated with chromatin, or as outgrowths from the nuclear framework 
itself. They remain attached to the nucleus by long fine threads which 
persist even after the bodies have passed into a neighbouring cell. This 
phenomenon occurs most abundantly during synapsis, but frequently also 
in the earlier stages. 
In Helvella the course ol events is strikingly similar. The chromatin 
bodies may arise either from the nucleolus or nuclear framework, and in the 
former case they become gradually impregnated with chromatin. They 
are then forcibly ejected from the nucleus, often clearing a path in the 
cytoplasm, a fact which is of some interest, as the Galtonia bodies have 
usually a clear space round them. The somewhat pear-shaped body is 
