was visible a nucleolus embedded in a condensed plasma and surrounded
by eight medianly constricted filaments destined to form the equatorial
plate. A few isolated observations were also made on the cytology of the
ascus in _Peltigera canina_, in which lichen the preceding ascogonial
development is wholly vegetative. The secondary nucleus was seen to
contain a chromatin mass and a large nucleolus; in addition two angular
bodies of uncertain signification were associated with the nucleolus,
each with a central vacuole. The nucleolus disappeared in the prophase of
the first division and four double chromosomes were then plainly visible.
The succeeding phases of the first and the second nuclear division were
not seen, but in the prophase of the third it was possible to distinguish
four chromatin masses outside the nucleolus. The slow growth of the
lichen plant renders continuous observation extremely difficult.
[Illustration: Fig. 104. Developing asci of _Physcia ciliaris_ DC. × 800
(after Baur).]
F. Bachmann[671] was able to make important cytological observations in
her study of _Collema pulposum_. As regards the vegetative and ascogonial
nuclei, five or perhaps six chromosomes appeared on the spindle when the
nucleus divided. In the asci, the usual paired nuclei were present in the
early stages and did not fuse until the ascus had elongated considerably.
After fusion the definitive nucleus enlarged with the growth of the ascus
and did not divide until the ascus had attained full size. The nucleolus
was large, and usually excentric, and there were at first a number of
chromatin masses on an irregular spirem. In synapsis the spirem was drawn
into a compact mass, but after synapsis, “the chromatin is again in the
form of a knotty spirem.” In late prophases the chromosomes, small ovoid
bodies, were scattered on the spindle; later they were aggregated in the
centre, and, in the early metaphase, about twelve were counted now split
longitudinally. There were thus twice as many chromosomes in the first
division in the ascus as in nuclear divisions of the vegetative hyphae.
F. Bachmann failed to see the second division; there were at least five
chromosomes in the third division.
Considerable importance is given to the number of the chromosomes in
the successive divisions in the ascus since they are considered to be
proof of a previous double fusion—in the ascogonium and again in the
ascus—necessitating, therefore, a double reduction division to arrive at
the gametophytic or vegetative number of five or six chromosomes in the
third division in the ascus. There have been too few observations to draw
any general conclusions.
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