Stop es ancl Fujii, The nutritive relations of the surrounding tissues etc. 5 
series treated with lodine yielded particularly instructive results 
when compared with similar series stained with Triple stain, 
especially as regards the starch and protein grains. For the 
detection of “plasmodesmen’ ? we chiefly used hand sections of 
90 % spirit material. 
In short we used as many kinds of material as were available, 
ch eckin g the results ohtained front hand sections of fresh material 
with those of microtome series wlienever possible. 
Observations. 
Cycads. 
The general appearance of the Cycadean prothallium, with its 
large archegonia, is too well known to require special description. 
The cells of the prothallium immediately surrounding the egg cell 
differ somewhat in appearcance from the others and have long 
heen known under the name of “jacket” or ,,skeath' ? cells. In all 
the Cycads we have examined these cells appear to he simply 
modified cells of the prothallium, and no facts have come to light 
in our work to Support Lawson’s 1 ) view (expressed for Sequoia 
and Cryptomeria ) that they are reduced sterile eggs. This however 
does not affect their physiological relation to the egg cell which is 
our present consideration. 
The facts that the ir cytoplasm is very thick and granulär, 
and their nuclei are frequently twice or more in diameter those of 
ordinary endosperm cells (see fig. 8) already indicated the 
pysiological importance of the jacket cells, w r hich we must discuss 
later after various details have been hrought forward. 
In the course of this paper we will attempt to describe the 
observations made on the nature of food stuffs entering the 
Archegonia (not only the protein granules to which most authors 
confine their attention, but also carbohydrates etc.), the form in 
which these food stuffs travel, and the mode of their passage 
through the cell walls. 
The youngest fresh material of Cycads .which we have examined 
was Ceratozamia fusco viridis , in which the egg cells were only just 
recognisable with the naked eye. By this time starch was laid 
down in the integuments, and to a slight extent in the nucellus, 
but the thin walled, hyaline endosperm tissues teere entirely devoid 
of it. On testing whole endosperms with Fehling’s solution, strong 
reduction took place as was seen by the considerable formation of 
cuprous oxide; this reaction, although suggesting the presence of 
sugar is not necessarily conclusive, as there is a strong “reducing 
substance 2 ) other than known kinds of sugars, present in large 
9 Lawson, A. A., ..The gametophytes. archegonia, fertilization and 
erabryo of Sequoia sempervirens li . (Ann. of Bot. Yol. XYIII. 1904. p. 1 to 28. 
see p. 15.) „The gamet., fertiliz. and emb. of Cryptomeria Japonica’ 1 . (Ann. 
of Bot, Yol. XYIII. 1904. p. 417 to 444. see p. 431.) 
2 ) Fujii, K., „Ueber d. Bestäubungstropfen d. Gymnospermen^. (Berichte 
d. I). Bot. Ges. Bd. XXI. 1903. Heft 4. p. 215.) 
