Stopes and Fujii, The nutritive relations of the surrounding tissues etc. 9 
becomes the deepest crimson. This is particnlarly noticeable in 
Dioon and Encephalartos , but holds good for all species examined. 
The formation of starch grains in the egg cell from the 
plentifnl supply of sugar is readily explained by the presence of 
plastids which we observed there in large numbers, but the formation 
of solid protein grains in the egg is not so simply explained. We 
endeavoured to obtain some information as to the nature of tliese 
protein grains in different parts of the tissues by the use of 
artificial pepsin digestion. 1 ) For this we found Macrozamia spiralis , 
in which the protein grains in the egg are large, and those in the 
jacket cells similar to thern, very good material. We used hand 
sections of alcohol material well washed in water and treated with 
a mixture of 3 parts • 3 °/ 0 H.C1 in H 2 0 + 1 part pepsin glycerine, 
and kept in this digestive fluid at a temperature of ab out 40 0 C. 
After treatment for 14 hours the protein granules in the egg, and 
nearly all those in the jacket cells had lost their high refraction 
and become “ghostly” remnants of their former selves with little 
or none of their previous active staining power. The chromatin 
bodies of the egg nucleus however became much more brilliantly 
refractive than before (as is characteristic of chromatin after such 
treatment) while the nucleolus of the egg cell became slightly 
granulär in appearance. In other cases, after 21 hours the protein 
granules of the egg cell and most of those in the jacket cells were 
completely digested, the nucleoli of the egg and jacket cells 
remaining undigested, with a few other small grains. 
This result proves that the nucleoli and protein grains are 
different in Chemical structure so that one can hardly look to the 
nucleoli of the jacket layer as their direct source as some authors 
have done. So also the fact that protein grains just like those of 
the egg exist in extremely large quantities in the endosperm cells 
makes it difficult to think that the nucleoli alone should build 
them up. It seems to us rather that the protein substance 
accumulates in the endosperm cells, enteriog in soluble and 
probably simpler forms, and that in both egg and endosperm cells 
it is rebuilt in a semiviscous state, when it begins to concentrate, 
forming granules. The large irregulär form of the grains certainly 
Supports this supposition as does also the appearance of the cell 
contents of the endosperm in which the various stages of the 
granuiation are to be seen. 
Ginkgo biloba. 
After what has been said about the Cycads, there is no need 
to enter so fully into the details of Ginkgo, in which most parti- 
culars of the structure of the female gametophyte are extremely 
similar. 
q Zacharias, E., ,.Ueber d. ehern. Beschaffenheit d. Zellkerns“. (Bot. 
Zeit. 1881. p. 169 to 176.) „Ueber d. ehern. Beschaffenheit v. Cytoplasma u. 
Zellkern“. (Bericht, d. D. Bot. Ges. Bd. XI. 1893. p. 293—307.) ..Ueber 
Xachweis u. Vorkommen v. Nuclein“. (Bericht, d, D. Bot. Ges. Bd. XVI. 1898. 
p. 185—198.) 
