20 OUR NATIVE FERNS AND THEIR ALLIES. 



liverworts called the prothallium. Different ferns vary in the 

 method of forming this prothallium, some producing it im- 

 mediately at the spore and others 

 after the formation of a thread- 

 like growth known as the pro- 

 embryo. The prothallium is en- 

 tirely composed of cellular tissue, 

 and in the true ferns (POLYPO- 

 DIACE^E) is broadly cordate or reni- 

 form in shape, and bears large 

 numbers of root-hairs from the 

 under part of its posterior portion 

 (Figs. 12. 13). 



The prothallium varies in size 

 from less than one tenth of an 

 J%' l^^S^^fo inch up to one third of an inch 

 stages of growth. (After Moore.) j n ks widest part . Qn the under 



surface of the prothallium two sorts of organs are produced 

 which represent the male and female structures, respectively 

 known as antheridia and archegonia. The position of these 

 organs on the prothallium varies in different sub-orders. In 

 some species, notably the ostrich-fern, the two kinds of sexual 

 organs are produced on separate prothallia, so that the plant 

 becomes dioecious instead of monoecious. In nurseries where 

 ferns are grown for sale immense quantities of prothallia are 

 regularly developed from spores. 



63. Antheridia. These are small masses of tissue developed 

 in the same manner as the root-hairs, consisting of a single 

 layer of cells forming the wall, and containing a number of 

 spirally coiled threads, usually with a number of cilia on their 

 anterior coils. At maturity the antheridium swells by the ab- 

 sorption of water and finally bursts its wall, discharging these 

 coiled filaments, which possess the power of locomotion, and for 

 this reason are called antherozoids. These antherozoids often 

 drag with them a little vesicle which seems to play no part in 

 the process of reproduction (Fig. 14). 



64. Archegonia. The archegonium (falsely called pistil- 

 lidium) is also a rounded mass of tissue usually less prom- 



