THE FERX BULLETIN 



n 



is usually not much difference between the vegetative 

 and spore-bearing portions but among thtLycopodiums 

 where the two functions are usually sharply differen- 

 tiated, some other term had to be found. The leaves 

 bearing the spores could be called collectively the fer- 

 tile spike or the fruiting spike, but the individual leaves 

 were named sporophylls. literally "spore leaves." That 

 they are only leaves, however, our specimen shows 

 for at the top we see them turned back to purely vege- 

 tative functions. In a few Lycopodiums, as in most 

 of the ferns, we find the leaves doing 

 double duty. Such species as L. lucid ulum 

 and L. Sclago illustrate this. 



The sporophylls of Lycopodium are of 

 further interest in indicting the path 

 along which flowers may have developed. 

 Beginning with the ferns, where sporo- 

 phylls an'd vegetative leaves are similar 

 we have the two clearly differentiated in 

 Lycopodium. The differentiation, how- 

 ever, does not stop here. In Sclagiuclla 

 the sporophylls are further distinguished 

 as large and small sporophylls or if you please megas- 

 porophylls and microsporophylls. Connected with this 

 further separation is the curious fact that the spores 

 are now of two kinds ; one the microspore or small 

 spore borne by the microsporophylls, the larger the 

 megaspore borne by the megasporophyll. Further the 

 microspores always produce male prothallia and the 

 megaspores, female prothallia. Here is where the re- 

 lationship of flowers comes in, for the stamen is really 

 a microsporophyll and the pollen grains are essentially 

 spores, while the carpels are megasporophylls and the 

 enbryosacs are megaspores. As everyone knows, a 



