598 Beer and Arber* — Binucleate and Multinucleate Cells . 
cotyledons of four species of Liliaceae and in the roots of Bamhusa , sp., 
Anthurium violaceum , and Stratiotes aloides . 1 Our thanks are due to 
Miss Ethel Sargant, who has allowed us to examine in this connexion 
certain of her preparations of Liliaceae seedlings. We have made few 
observations outside the Angiosperms, but we have found a binucleate 
stage in the stems of Araucaria imbricata and of Equisetum maximum and 
E. limosum , showing that this phase is not confined to the highest groups. 
Taking all the cases together and including stems and leaves, we have 
found the binucleate or multinucleate phase in seventy-six species belonging 
to thirty-three orders. 
The nuclei of the multinucleate cells generally arise by mitosis, but 
there are certain exceptional features connected with this mitosis and with 
the behaviour of the associated cytoplasm. The most striking of these 
is that two daughter-nuclei in the telophase, between which no wall- 
formation is in progress, are often found enclosed in a hollow sphere of 
dense and deeply-staining protoplasm, the appearance at first glance sug¬ 
gesting a cell within a cell. We have observed this singular phenomenon 
in thirty-five species, representing seventeen natural orders. These and other 
matters arising out of our observations we hope to discuss in a future paper, 
but as the subject is a wide one and will take considerable time to work out 
in detail, we wish to put on record this preliminary survey of our results. 
The expenses of our work are being partially borne by a grant from 
the Newnham College Fellowship Committee, for which we desire to tender 
our thanks. We also wish to express our indebtedness to Prof. W. Bateson, 
F. R.S., for his kind permission to grow and collect material at the John 
Innes Horticultural Institution, and to Mr. R. I. Lynch, M.A., Curator of 
the Cambridge Botanic Garden, and Mr. E. J. Allard for valuable help in 
the same connexion. 
1 The binucleate cells in the roots of Stratiotes and Anthurium appear to differ from the other 
cases recorded in this note in that the plurality of nuclei here arises through a form of amitosis. See 
Arber, A.: On Root Development in Stratiotes aloides, L., with special reference to the occurrence of 
Amitosis in an embryonic tissue. Proc. Camb. Phil. Soc., vol. xvii, pp. 369-79, 2 pi., 1914. 
