BRIEFER ARTICLES 



ON THE CONTENTS OF THE POLLEN CHAMBER OF A SPECI- 

 MEN OF LAGENOSTOMA OVOIDES 



(with two figures) 



Lagenostoma ovoides is one of the commonest of the oinales occurring 

 in the calcite nodules of the British Coal-measures. It is only specifically 

 distinct from Z, Lomaxi, which has been attributed by Oliver and Scott^ 



■ 



to Lyginodendron Oldhamium, It appears therefore probable that it belongs 



group 



ovule 



In an oblique section through the micropyle and pollen chamber of a 



LOMAX 



besides the pollen grains which he recorded, several naked protoplasmic 

 bodies of very characteristic form. One of these bodies is within one of 

 the pollen grains, two are free and entire, and one is cut across. Pro- 

 truding from three of the grains, which show a considerably ruptured 



epispore, are bladder-like structures which are clearly surrounded by the 

 endospore. Thus I interpreted the grains as germinating, and (as I men- 

 tioned in a paper 2 I was writing at the time) ''apparently in the very act of 

 yielding antherozoids like those of Cycas and Ginkgo" (p. i68). 



The slide was last year exhibited at the Linnaean Society's rooms, 

 London, on the occasion of the celebration of the bicentenar}^ of the birth 

 of Linnaeus, and my interpretation having met with general acceptance, 

 I have decided that it should be figured. The many valuable contributions 

 to our knowledge of spermatogenesis (including the recent work on Mi- 

 crocycas by Caldwell^) that have appeared in the Botanical Gazette, 

 have induced me to send the account of this remarkable fossil to the same 

 journal. 



^ Oliver, F. W., and Scott, D. H., On the structure of the palaeozoic seed 

 Lagenostoma LomaxL Phil. Trans. Roy. Soc- London B 197:193-247- pls. 4-^0. 

 1904. 



2 Benson, Margaret, Telangiiim Scotti, a new species of Telangium (Cal}-m- 

 matotheca) sho\\ing structure. Annals of Botany 18:161-177. pi 11^ 1904- 



3 Caldwell, Otis W., Microcycas calocoma. Bot. Gazette 44:118-141- 



figs. 14. 1907 

 409] 



[Botanical Gazette, vol. 45 



