THE CYTOLOGY OF FUNARIA FLAVICANS MICHX. WITH SPECIAL REFERENCE TO FERTILIZATION' MARTHA LYDIA BEARDSLEY Professor of Biology, Sioux Falls College, Sioux Falls, South DakotaFormerly Instructor in Botany, Henry Shaw School of Botany of Washington University I. INTRODUCTION AND HISTORY The desirability of a study of fertilization in the Mosses wassuggested by the fact that this is the one great group of plantsin which no thorough investigation had been undertaken con-cerning nuclear fusion. The question of fertilization in theLiverworts, which are similar to the Mosses in their structuralaspects, has received considerable attention in recent years. Inthe Liverworts three distinct types of nuclear fusion are en-countered. Inasmuch as the observations regarding fertilizationin the Mosses are so meagre and since the processes in the Liver-worts are so diverse, the present investigation was undertaken. The literature contains fragmentary observations on thesubject, the earliest of which is that of Hofmeister ('62), whoobserved in Funaria an antherozoid moving down the neckof an archegonium which was ready for insemination. In thecase of dioecious species no fruit or sporophyte was formedunless male and female plants were growing in the same locality.He observed that the young sporophyte when consisting of fromone to four cells remained free in the ventral cavity, but, afterfurther division, grew down into the tissue of the archegonium. Roze ('72), studying the development of the archegonium inSphagnum, depicted an archegonium with several antherozoidsin the neck canal and one antherozoid in contact with the egg.The antherozoids entered with the ciliated portion foremost andremained in the ventral cavity. The thickness of the archegonialwall prevented him from determining the progress of penetrationof the antherozoid into the egg. 1 An investigation carried out at the Missouri Botanical Garden in the GraduateLaboratory of the Henry Shaw School of Botany of Washington University, and sub-mitted as a thesis in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of doctorof philosophy in the Henry Shaw School of Botany of Washington University.ANN. Mo. BOT. GARD., VOL. 18, 1931. (509)
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