OF THE OKLAHOMA THE OCCURRENCE OF A POLLEN TUBE WITH FOUR SPERMS AND TWO TUBE NUCLEI IN POLYGONATUlr

VariaiiODS of the sporophytic phases of higher plants are familiar to many biologists, but studies of variations of gametophytic phases are indeed Jimited(WuUr and Maheshwari 1938). During the past five years approximately 10,000 pollen tubes of Polygonatum canaliculatum, prepared by a technique previously outlined by the writer (Eigsti 1940a), have been examined in the laboratory. In all of these cases, with two exceptions, 2 sperms (fig. 1, SI, Bt) and 1 tube nucleus (fig. 1 t) appeared in the pollen tube (fig. 1-2), and of these exceptions one pollen tube had 3 sperms and 1 tube nucleus (Eigsti 1940b), while the other here reported had 4 sperms' and 2 tube nuclei (fig. 3-4).