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 Pottocx. At the shedding stage, as 
recorded by StRASBURGER (r1), there are two disintegrating prothal- 
lial cells, a stalk cell, a body cell, and a tube nucleus. MryaKe 
(2) verified this account; also described the pollen tube stages and 
the division of the antheridial cell into stalk and body cells. Pot- 
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 1s, 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 
Fitzscue described Pinus as having a large central vesicle and 
disintegrating bodies against the wall of the pollen grain (Zwis- 
chenkor per). MEveEN (in 1839) stated that the Zwischenkor per were 
cells, and that one of them served as a stalk of attachment. Jvu- 
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 
tise by division to an inner cell and an end cell. These three cells 
were collectively known as the cell body (Zellkérper). Until 1891 
the tube nucleus (grosse Zelle or freigebildete Zelle) was believed 
967 [Botanical Gazette, vol. 59 
