Observations on the microanatomy of the spermatozoid of the bracken fern (Pteridium aquilinum)

Abstract

Salient features of structure of the spermatozoid of a fern (Pteridium aquilinum) have been determined by a combination of visual and ultraviolet microscopy, with electron microscopy of shadow-cast whole mounts and thin sections, using magnifications up to but not exceeding 50,000 diameters. Attention has been concentrated on the arrangement rather than on the internal details of the various parts. The most important component, apart from the spirally wound nucleus, numerous (about 40) cilia, and mitochondria, is a sheet of parallel fibres spirally wound near the surface of a cone of cytoplasm to which all the other major components are in various ways attached. The diameter of the individual fibres is of the order of 200 A. A few details are given of other minor cell constituents including additional mechanical materials, starch-containing leucoplasts, and the smaller cytoplasmic inclusions.