Reprinted from the Botanical Gazette, 59: No. 4, April 1915 



ON THE MALE GAMETOPHYTE OF PICEA CANADENSIS 



CONTRIBUTIONS FROM THE HULL BOTANICAL LABORATORY 200 



A. H. Hutchinson 



(WITH PLATES XV-XIX AND ONE FIGURE) 



The male gametophyte of Picea excelsa has been described by 

 Strasburger, Miyake, and Pollock. At the shedding stage, as 

 recorded by Strasburger (i), there are two disintegrating prothal- 

 lial cells, a stalk cell, a body cell, and a tube nucleus. Miyake 

 (2) verified this account; also described the pollen tube stages and 

 the division of the antheridial cell into stalk and body cells. Pol- 

 lock (3) noted certain variations in the gametophyte at the time 

 of pollination. This account deals with the early stages of devel- 

 opment in the male gametophyte of Picea canadensis. 



The staminate cones were collected from trees growing near 

 Lake Simcoe, Ontario, Canada. Daily collections were made from 

 May 2 until May 15, the time of shedding. The usual time for 

 pollination in this locality is about two weeks later. 



Nomenclature 



The nomenclature used in accounts of male gametophytes has 

 varied according to the character used as a basis for the system, 

 whether it be size, position, or the writer's conception of origin 

 or function of the different cells. Early in the nineteenth century 

 Fitzsche described Pinus as having a large central vesicle and 

 disintegrating bodies against the wall of the pollen grain (Zwis- 

 chenkorpcr). Meyen (in 1839) stated that the Zwischenkor per were 

 cells, and that one of them served as a stalk of attachment. Ju- 

 ranyi (4) reported that in Ceratozamia the pollen mother cell 

 divided into a large and a small daughter cell (kleine Tochterzelle) ; 

 that the latter divided to form two, and that the inner of these gave 

 rise by division to an inner cell and an end cell. These three cells 

 were collectively known as the cell body (Zcllkdr per) . Until 1891 

 the tube nucleus (grossc Zelle or freigebildclc Zelle) was believed 

 287] [Botanical Gazette, vol. 59 



