CONIFERALES 



89 



THE MALE GAMETOPHYTE 



The male gametophyte of Conifers has long been known in a 

 general way, but Belajeff,**' 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,^^ studying a somewhat wider range of 

 forms, notably Larix and Cupressus, extended Belajeff's con- 

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

 the further studies of Belajeff^^ upon Taxus and Juniperus. 

 In 1894 Dixon** published a detailed account of the male 

 gametophyte of Pinus silvestris, which was followed by us in 

 1896 with confirmatory studies of Pinu^ Laricio. In 1896 

 Shaw** published partial results of his studies of Sequoia; 

 in 1899 Jager *" investigated Taxus haccata anew, and with 

 .abundant material ; recently Coker *^ has published some notes 



Fig. 68. — Pinus Laricio, showing mitosis in pollen mother cells, May 3d ; x 500. 



on Taxodium disUchum ; while Arnoldi ** 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). 



