Veronica Chamaedrys caused by Sorosphaera Veronicae. 37 
fixed in Bouin’s fixing solution, consisting of formal ioc.c., saturated 
aqueous solution of picric acid 30C.C., and crystallizable acetic acid 2 c.c. 
This fixing agent we found rather better than Flemming’s solutions, its 
action being quick and its penetrating power better. Benda’s iron haema- 
toxylin and Flemming’s triple stains were used chiefly for staining 
purposes. 
The life-history of Sorosphaera consists of a vegetative and a repro¬ 
ductive stage of development characterized by a difference in the nuclei. 
The former commences with the presence in the procambial plant-cells of 
an amoeba with one or a few nuclei; the protoplasm has the usual spongy 
granular appearance, in which is situated the nucleus, which consists of 
a spherical cavity, in the centre of which is the large deeply stained 
nucleolus or karyosome, from which achromatic strands radiate to the 
peripheral granules of chromatin on the inner side of the nuclear membrane; 
at times under the highest powers appearances suggest that these filaments 
pass through the nuclear membrane. This small amoebiform organism 
grows, and later on is found surrounded by starch grains; the nuclei divide 
in a way shortly to be described till comparatively large flattened or more 
% 
or less spherical bodies are formed constituting a plasmodium, although this 
is not the true plasmodium of Cienkowsky, for it is not formed by the 
aggregation of amoebae from many spores, but rather from the growth of 
a single spore. Portions of this may be constricted off so that as many as 
six or more plasmodia may be found in one enormously hypertrophied 
plant-cell. 
The Nuclear Division of the Vegetative Phase. The most easily recog¬ 
nized stage in the division of the nucleus is a cruciform figure (as shown 
in Fig. 5 e) in which the karyosome has elongated and is surrounded 
by a ring, the whole resembling a miniature of the planet Saturn when 
viewed from the side. Viewed from above it is seen that this ring is of the 
nature of a plate, at the periphery of which nuclear granules can be recog¬ 
nized. The whole is included in the nuclear membrane, which now has 
a quadrilateral in place of its spherical outline. It resembles to some 
extent the figure of the nucleus of Amoeba Umax. As to how this nuclear 
figure is produced it is not easy to say, but it would appear to arise from 
an elongation of the karyosome and the collection of the peripheral 
chromatin granules into a plate ; this is shown in Fig. 5 b. This stage 
has been observed and drawn by Nawaschin in his article. 
Another stage which is fairly frequently met with is that drawn in 
Figs. $e and f. It resembles a dumb-bell in shape, and is apparently 
produced by further elongation of the karyosome and a splitting of the 
equatorial plate, the two halves of which go to form a flattened cap at 
each extremity of the elongated karyosome. From this stage the future 
procedure is easy to trace until two daughter-nuclei are produced ; these 
