1180 Wisconsin Academy of Sciences, Arts, and Letters. 
which I have called the inter astral zone. The persistence and 
growth of the polar rays after the disappearance of the spindle 
is unquestionable in Geoglossum. The centers are distinct and 
for the most part lie near the plasma-membrane of the ascus and 
widely separated from each other. There is, however, no regu¬ 
larity in their orientation as has already been noted. The 
growth of the fibres continues and the asters thus come into con¬ 
tact with each other. The practically radial arrangement oi 
the fibres is conspicuous up to the interastral zone (figures 5, 
6, 7, 8, 9 and 10). In this zone there is a break. The cyto¬ 
plasm in this region stains slightly darker and is very conspicu¬ 
ous, thus appearing to divide the cytoplasmic mass into definite 
portions which, however, have nothing whatever to do with the 
spores which are to be cut out later. 
The interastral zone has nothing whatever to do with the 
future boundary of the spore. When the fibres begin to curve 
about the nucleus, the ends of the fibres, which up to this time 
formed the interastral zone, change their position and bend in 
toward the nucleus. The rays soon begin to fuse in the neigh¬ 
borhood of the central body (figure 12). At this stage when 
the aster is cut across at some distance from the central body 
and beyond the region where the rays have already fused, the 
cut ends of the numerous fibres form a dense circular region as 
has already been described and shown in figure 12, a. 
In a slightly later stage these rays fuse to complete the for¬ 
mation of the plasma membrane already started near the center 
(figure 13). 
USTot all of the rays of the aster enter into the formation of the 
plasma membrane of the spore. Some of them remain inside 
the membrane and ultimately fade out in the cytoplasm of the 
spore. This condition Harper has already described and 
figured. It is entirely different from that figured by Faull. It 
appears plainly from my figures that the number of the rays en¬ 
closed in the spore is much smaller than that of the entire polar 
aster shown in the figures of stages previous to that of the com¬ 
pletion of the spore membrane. My figures 13, 14, 15 and 16 
in Geoglossum do not correspond at all to Faulks figures 27, 28, 
