Published online by Cambridge University Press: 06 July 2012
Considerable interest attaches to the unravelling of the complete life-history of the Psilotaceæ, since they are apparently the nearest living representatives of the Sphenophyllales.
The recent description of the gametophyte of Tmesipteris by Prof. Lawson, whose figures 1 had the privilege of seeing before they went to press, and the discovery of the gametophyte of Psilotum, which is the subject of the present paper, form a first contribution to the solution of this problem. It is of some interest to note that there remains now no Pteridophyte the gametophyte of which has not been described.
In the early part of this research I was fortunate in finding a locality near at hand in which Psilotum flourished, and therefore I had at my disposal abundance of spores and later numerous prothalli.
page 82 note * Lang, W. H., “The Prothallus of Lycopodium clavatum,” Annals of Botany, xvii, p. 311Google Scholar.
page 83 note * “On the Constitution, Origin, and Dehydration of Laterite,” Sir Holland, T. H., Geological Magazine, 1903, vol. x, p. 59CrossRefGoogle Scholar.
page 88 note * Lang, W. H., “On a Prothallus provisionally referred to Psilotum,” Annals of Botany, vol. xviii, p. 571Google Scholar.