i 



THE SPORANGIUM OF THE OPHIOGLOSSALES 



CONTRIBUTIONS FROM THE HULL BOTANICAL LABORATORY 



XCIV 



L. L. BURLINGAME 



(with plates III AND iv) 



The sporangium of the Ophioglossales has been studied by 



J' 



russow ('92), goebel ('80, '81), holtzman (*92), rostowzew 

 ('92), Campbell ('95, 105), Bower ('96), Cardiff (:o5), Stevens 

 (:o5); and Beer (:o6). Of these the last three 



concern themselves 



elopment 



gium and with the development of the spores up to the time of shed- 

 ding. The former investigators devoted their principal attention to 

 the early stages of sporangial development. Of their accounts, 

 Bower's is the most comprehensive and, so far as the earlier stages 

 of Ophioglossum are concerned, the most satisfactory. 



In the fall of 1906 there came into my hands, through the courtesy 

 of Professor John M. Coulter and Dr. Charles J. Chamberlain, 



some fertile spikes of Ophioglossum reticulatunij which had been 

 collected by Dr. H. N. Whitford at Lamao, Bataan, Philippine 

 Islands. The spikes, from plants growing at an altitude of seventy- 

 five feet above sea level, were collected July 26, 1904, killed and fixed 

 in chrom-acetic acid, run up through the alcohols to 70 per cent., and 

 sent to Chicago. 



With the completion of this investigation each of the three genera 

 of Ophioglossales will have been studied throughout the entire period 

 of development of the sporangium and spores up to the time of shed- 

 ding, so that a discussion of the development of the sporangium 

 in the group seems timely. In this discussion Ophioglossum will be 

 made the type, with frequent comparison with the other genera. 

 The material of O. reticulatum showed no stages earlier than those 



h 



and the sporogenous 



short of the mother-cell stage. 



necessary 



from the writiners of form 



y 



I 



Botanical 



[34 



