Torrey Botanical Society

Notes on the Archegonium of FernsAuthor(s): Douglas H. CampbellSource: Bulletin of the Torrey Botanical Club, Vol. 18, No. 1 (Jan. 20, 1891), p. 16Published by: Torrey Botanical SocietyStable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/2477423 .

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16

Notes on the Archegonium of Ferns.

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6.-

a.

I. In a memoir on the Ostrich Fern*, published some time since, the statement was made that the ventral canal-cell was wanting. This decision was based on numerous sections of the living prothal- lium, and has since been found to be in- correct. In microtome sections, (see fig. a.) the ventral canal-cell (b.) is very evi- dent, and is plainly derived from the ceng tral cell. In the upper canal-cell, two nuclei may usually be readily seen, but in no cases observed was the cell divided.

2. On sectioning one prothallium, perfectly developed archegonia were noticed both above and below (Fig. b.) and subsequent examination showed numerous other instances of the same

thing; in several of these prothallia, embryos developed from archegonia upon the upper surface. Is this a case of reversion to an ancestral form having archegonia above as in liver-worts ? Unfortunately the fern from which these came could not be de- termined.

DOUGLAS H. CAMPBELL. Bloomington, Indiana, October, IS90.

EXPLANATION oF FIGURE.

a.-Vertical section of the full-grown archegonium of Onoclea Str zftliiopteris. o.-Central cell of the archegonium. b.-Ventral canal-wall. n-n1-The two nuclei of the upper canal-cell. b,-Vertical, longitudinal section of a fern-prothallium sp. (?) with archegonia up-

on both surfaces. a.-One of the apical cells.

*The Development of the Ostrich Fern, D. H. Campbell, Memoirs, Boston So- ciety of Natural History, I887.

Virginia Creeper. Many years ago the late Dr. Warder called my attention to

the two supposed forms of Ampelopsis (see BULLETIN xvii. 269) in

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