30 Wisconsin Academy of Sciences, Arts, and Letters. 
of the spore mother cell is much larger in proportion to the 
volume of the cell than it was in the cells of the first eight- 
celled stage. 
In a few cases not all of the cells fuse. In the spore sac 
from which the cell in figure fifty-one was drawn, there were 
nine separate cells. Seven of the cells were like the one drawn. 
The other two, which were lying at a little distance from each 
other, were smaller. Each had considerably less than half the 
volume of one of the larger cells. The ratio of the diameters 
of the smaller and larger cells is about 2:3. In this case, 
fourteen of the sixteen cells apparently fused by pairs. The 
other two, either because they were too far apart, or for some 
other reason, remained separate. Two cases of this sort have 
been recorded. A third case of a similar nature was studied. 
Here ten cells were were found in a spore sac, six of which were 
large and four were small. 
The cells after fusion proceed directly to the heterotypic di¬ 
vision. Several counts were made at the time of the very con¬ 
spicuous synaptic stage and here, too, there are only eight cells 
in a sporange. Eight cells go through the double division and 
eight tetards are formed. Spore counts were made from fresh 
material. The sporange was mounted under the microscope and 
crushed and the spores counted. The number of spores is fre¬ 
quently fewer than thirty-two but never exceeds that number. 
The evidence from all these data is conclusive that the sixteen 
young spore mother cells fuse by pairs to form eight cells. 
The Reduction Divisions. 
After the fusion, the eight diploid cells at once enter upon 
the prophases of the reduction divisions. 
In figure fifty-one, we have a cell in which fusion is com¬ 
plete. The chromatin is still reticulated in certain regions 
but the spirem is appearing also. The volume of the nucleus 
is larger in proportion to the size of the cell than it has been in 
any preceding stage. There are relatively large, clear spaces 
between the chromatin strands. So far as the chromatin devel¬ 
opment is concerned, this is really an earlier stage than those 
