I. On Isoëtes lacustris, linn

• Published in: Proceedings of the Royal Society of London Vol. 45; no. 273; pp. 306 - 308
• Main Author: Farmer, John Bretland
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: London The Royal Society 31.12.1889
• ISSN: 0370-1662; 2053-9126
• DOI: 10.1098/rspl.1888.0092

The genus Isoëtes has been an object of interest to botanists ever since Hofmeister’s brilliant researches on the vascular cryptogams, but the accounts given by the different observers on the development and organogeny of the sporophyte are so conflicting, and moreover our knowledge of the sexual generation is so limited, that a renewed investigation of the whole subject seems desirable. In the present communication I propose to summarise, as briefly as possible, the more important of my own observations on one species, I. lacustris, to which plant my attention has been directed for some time past. I intend to deal here only with the germination of the macrospore, and to reserve details of minor significance, as well as all account of the sporophyte, for treatment in a future paper, as this part of the subject requires critical discussion.