Fig. 291.
Section through sorus of Polypodium vulgare showing different
stages of sporangium, and one multicellular capitate hair.
536. How does this opening and snapping of the sporangium take place?—We are now more curious than ever to see just how this opening and snapping of the sporangium takes place. We should now mount some of the fresh sporangia in water and cover with a cover glass for microscopic examination. A drop of glycerine should be placed at one side of the cover glass on the slip so that the edge of the glycerine will come in touch with the water. Now as one looks through the microscope to watch the sporangia, the water should be drawn from under the cover glass with the aid of some bibulous paper, like filter paper, placed at the edge of the cover glass on the opposite side from the glycerine. As the glycerine takes the place of the water around the sporangia it draws the water out of the cells of the annulus, just as it took the water out of the cells of the spirogyra as we learned some time ago. As the water is drawn out of these cells there is produced a pressure from without, the atmospheric pressure upon the glycerine. This causes the walls of these cells of the annulus to bend inward, because, as we have already learned, the glycerine does not pass through the walls nearly so fast as the water comes out.
Fig. 292.
Section through sorus and shield-shaped indusium of aspidium.
537. Now the structure of the cells of this annulus, as we have seen, is such that the inner walls and the perpendicular walls are stout, and consequently they do not bend or collapse when this pressure is brought to bear on the outside of the cells. The thin membranous walls on the back (dorsal walls) and on the sides of the annulus, however, yield readily to the pressure and bend inward. This, as we can readily see, pulls on the ends of each of the perpendicular walls drawing them closer together. This shortens the outer surface of the annulus and causes it to first assume a nearly straight position, then curve backward until it quite or nearly becomes doubled on itself. The sporangium opens between the lip cells on the front and the lateral walls of the sporangium are torn directly across. The greater mass of spores are thus held in the upper end of the open sporangium, and when the annulus has nearly doubled on itself it suddenly snaps back again in position. While treating with the glycerine we can see all this movement take place. Each cell of the annulus acts independently, but often they all act in concert. When they do not all act in concert, some of them snap sooner than others, and this causes the annulus to snap in segments.
Fig. 293.
Rear, side, and front views of fern sporangium.
d, e, annulus; a, lip cells.
