6o2 Prankerd.—Notes on the Occttrrence of Multinucleate Cells. 
if they are the result of karyokinesis. Stages in their separation from one 
another can easily be found, and appearances strongly suggestive of amitosis 
have occasionally been observed (Figs. 2, 4, b and c, and 8, b ). The con¬ 
striction of the nuclei described by Beer for grasses, the longitudinal fission 
for aquatics by McLean, and the lobing in Stratiotes by Arber have all been 
observed in plants far removed from aquatics in habit, and from grasses in 
classification; but it must be confessed that such stages are rare, although 
careful search has been made for them, and in some cases, where they are 
Figs. 6-8. 6. Cells from pith of Aesculus Hippocastanum , illustrating probable course of cell 
division, a, binucleate cell; b, cell with two nucleated protoplasts; c, cell very recently divided, 
x 400. 7. Zizania aquatica. Small piece of mesophyll of plumular leaf (from a preparation by 
Miss Sargant and Dr. A. Arber). x 600. 8. Parenchymatous cells from the vascular tissue of 
a , Adiantum Capillus- Veneris, and b, Pteris sp., showing lobed nuclei, x 930. 
present, binucleate cells have not been seen (Adiantum and Pteris , Fig. 8). 
This, however, scarcely militates against amitosis, since karyokinesis is even 
more rarely found, and the nuclei must be produced one way or the other. 
If, as seems probable, the actual process of division takes place very quickly, 
or at a special time, the failure to find stages in amitosis at all frequently is 
easily explained, and further work is contemplated to throw light on this point. 
With regard to the ultimate fate of multinucleate vegetative cells, 
we may surely dismiss the hypotheses of abortion of all but one nucleus, or 
fusion, since they are improbable on theoretic grounds, and no stage in either 
process has been observed. 1 Walls, then, must be formed, though evidently 
1 Contrast Carothers’ ( 3 ) view as to the course of events in the multinucleate cells of Ginkgo 
biloba. 
