
%0 Journal Article
%A Stone, IG 
%T The ontogeny of the antheriduim in some Leptosporangiate ferns with particular reference to the funnel-shaped wall
%J Australian Journal of Botany
%D 1962/11/01
%V 10
%N 2
%P 76-92
%K 
%R https://doi.org/10.1071/BT9620076
%U https://www.publish.csiro.au/paper/BT9620076 
%X An account of the ontogeny of the antheridium including some cytological details is given for some species of the Blechnaceae and Polypodiaoeae and for Polyphlebium venosum (R. Br.) Copeland, a member of the Hymenophyllaceae. In the species of Blechnaceae and Polypodiaceae which were examined the antheridium consists of three wall cells a discoid or columnar basal cell, a ring cell, and a cap cell-enclosing the androgonial tissue. The ring cell and cap cell are delimited by a wall which is laid down in the shape of a funnel. In Polyphlebium the antheridial wall typically consist's of four cells - a lower and an upper ring cell, a cap cell, and an operculum. Each ring cell is produced in a straightforward manner by a funnel-shaped wall. Davie's postulation concerning the development of the antheridium by a series of transverse walls and upward and downward expansion of the androgonial cell, giving the appearance of funnel-shaped walls and ring cells, has been included in text-books by Smith (1955) and Foster and Gifford (1959). This hypothesis is questioned, and an explanation of what is considered to be the true method of development of the funnel-shaped walls and ring cells in the fern antheridium is given. Anomalous antheridia of Blechnufm cartilagineum Sw., in which the androgonial tissue is flattened and abortive, form a deep cap cell and a ring cell separated by a funnel-shaped wall, although no expansion of the central androgonial cell takes place. The unusual method by which the pedicel and antheridial initial cell form from a cell of the filamentous prothallus in Polyphlebium is described. 
