COXIFERALES 



89 



THE MALE GAMETOPHYTE 



The male gametophyte of Conifers has long been known in a 

 general way, but Belajeff, 30 investigating Taxus baccata and 

 Juniperus communis in 1891, seems to have been the first to 

 recognize the homologies and functions as at present understood. 

 In 1892 Strasburger, 31 studying a somewhat wider range of 

 forms, notably Larix and Cupressus, extended BelajefFs con- 

 clusions to Conifers in general. This was followed in 1893 by 

 the further studies of Belajeff 32 upon Taxus and Juniperus. 

 In 1894 Dixon 33 published a detailed account of the male 

 gametophyte of Pinus silvestris, which was followed by us in 

 1896 with confirmatory studies of Pinus Laricio. In 1896 

 Shaw 34 published partial results of his studies of Sequoia ; 

 in 1899 Jager 40 investigated Taxus baccata anew, and with 

 abundant material ; recently Coker 45 has published some notes 



FIG. 68. Pin t(# Laricio, showing mitosis in pollen mother cells, May 3d ; x 500. 



on Taxodium distichum ; while Arnoldi 43 has obtained some 

 interesting results from a study of Cephalotaxus Fortunei. 

 These accounts indicate a fairly uniform series of events, a uni- 

 formity somewhat obscured by the varying terminology of the 

 writers. We have secured a very complete series of prepara- 

 tions from Pinus Laricio, and the following account is written 

 from them (Figs. 68, 69). 



