But this investigation led him to the conclusion that all vegetative cell-formation is true cell-division, and that even the reproductive cell-formation in some Algae and Fungi is effected by division; the reproductive cells of most plants are the result of free cell-formation, but it should be observed that the term free cell-formation is here used not exactly in the modern sense, inasmuch as Nägeli included in it the formation of four-fold grains (tetrads) in spores and pollen. If the distinction between cell-division and free cell-formation had often been suggested by former observers, Nägeli was the first who distinctly defined it, though not exactly as it is now defined. ‘In cell-division the contents of the mother-cell separate into two or more portions; a perfect membrane forms round each of these portions, which at the moment of its appearance rests partly on the wall of the mother-cell and partly on the adjacent walls of the sister-cells. In free cell-formation a smaller or larger part of the contents of a cell, or even the whole of them becomes isolated. On its surface is formed a perfect membrane, which is everywhere free on its outer face. There are two processes in the formation of a cell; the first is the isolation or individualising of a part of the contents of the mother-cell, the second the formation of a membrane round the individualised portion.’ He then proceeds to show that the cell-wall is formed by the separation of non-nitrogenous molecules from the nitrogenous mucilage (protoplasm). These sentences contain all that is general and essential in vegetative cell-formation. Further on he notices the peculiarities in the various processes in cell-formation; he says that the individualising of the cell-contents assumes four forms; first, single small portions of the contents separate themselves inside the rest, as occurs in the formation of free germ-cells in Algae, Fungi, and Lichens, and of endosperm-cells in Phanerogams; secondly, the whole contents of one cell, or of two by conjugation of associated cells, collect into a free spherical or ellipsoidal mass, as in the formation of germ-cells in the Conjugatae; thirdly, the whole contents of a cell separate into two or more portions, which is now called cell-division; from this Nägeli distinguishes as his fourth form, the process known as abscision (Abschnürung), which occurs in the formation of germ-cells in many Algae and Fungi. Schleiden had declared it to be a general law in plants, that cells are only formed inside mother-cells. Meyen however, Endlicher, and Unger, had recently assumed the formation of new cells between the older ones; Nägeli maintained that all normal cell-formation, vegetative and reproductive, takes place only within mother-cells.