1064 Stevens.—On the Development of the 
protoplast in the sections studied by Fitting, Campbell (’ 05 ), and herself 
they were due to shrinkage during the preparation of the sections. In 
sections which showed no signs of shrinkage anywhere, Miss Lyon found 
the region of the gaps filled with a substance that seemed to be a part of the 
spore membrane. 
In Aneimia the spore protoplast is found in contact with the wall all 
around after the thickening and cutinization of the wall are well advanced 
(Fig. 18). In older spores the recedence of the protoplast away from most 
of the wall (Fig. 20) may be due to plasmolysis during the processes of 
fixing and embedding ; or it may be that the thin film of cytoplasm shown 
in Fig. 18 has been used up in nourishing the spore coats, as Strasburger 
(’ 82 , ’ 89 ) has suggested for similar appearances in many pollen-grains. 
Miss Twiss, 1 . c., finds for Lygodinm circinatum and Aneimia hirsnta 
that soon after the spore wall has been laid down, and before its thickening 
has set in, it begins to stain red with the safranin-gentian-violet combination; 
then as the wall thickens its outer portion stains yellow, indicating pectin, 
while the inner part reacts to safranin as before. While this differentiation 
of the exospore is going on, or before, an endospore layer of cellulose is laid 
down which remains thenceforth chemically unaltered. This differentiation 
of the exospore into a pectinized and a cutinized or suberized layer does 
not appear in my preparations. 
When the spore walls of Aneimiaphyllitidis are first formed, we find 
the cytoplasm and nuclei of the tapetal plasmodium in a well-nourished 
condition, while at a later stage when the spores are more fully matured, 
and with the growth of the walls essentially completed, the tapetal cytoplasm 
is very noticeably impoverished and its nuclei are found in various stages of 
disintegration. 
As might be expected, many of the phenomena of sporangial develop¬ 
ment have to do especially with the nutrition of the spores. Mention has 
already been made of the advantages due to the surrounding of the 
gonotokonts and spores by the tapetal plasmodium, and attention should 
now be called to the provision for the storing of food and water. I find that 
at the stage shown in PI. LXXXIV, Fig. 7, the wall-cells of the sporangium 
are usually loaded with starch. The cells of the sorophore also, adjacent 
to the sporangium, contain starch, although in less amount. The very large 
cells on the marginal upper surface of the sorophore doubtless serve for the 
storage of water as well as food. Their reaction to the stains shows them 
to be filled with a very finely granular substance that presumably is some 
form of food. Within the tapetal and sporogenous cells, however, stored 
food is not evident. Beer, 1 . c., finds the wall-cells and tapetal plasma of 
Helminthostachys to contain reserve starch. Burlingame (’ 09 ) finds an 
abundance of starch in the plasmodium, and f food granules ’ in the sporo¬ 
genous cells of Ophioglossnm reiiculatum ; and Binford, 1 . c., finds the 
