360 MB. P. O. BOWEB ON APOSPOBY IN PEEKS. 



season, some few would assume predominance and form the pear- 

 shaped pseudobulbils at the expense of the weaker growths, 

 which would abort, as in many analogous eases. I incline the 

 more strongly to this opinion, as among the bases of the pear- 

 shaped bodies produced last year there were numerous thin, 

 thready, and shapeless growths, exactly such as would be likely 

 to originate iu such a way. 



My present object being to confirm as far as possible the 

 data I gave in June, I would call your attention, first, to the 

 existence of the young plants upon the table, raised as described ; 

 and, secondly, to the manifestly non-soriferous form of fructifi- 

 cation borne by the parent plant, an examination of which will, 

 I think, go far to convince you that its offspring are engendered 

 neither through spores nor by bulbils, but by some other mode 

 of reproduction — a mode which, from constant and careful watch- 

 ing through all its stages, I believe to be one so far unrecorded in 

 connection with any other Fern, viz., through prothalli produced, 

 not from spores, but by direct bud-growth from the parent frond. 



On Apospory in Ferns (with special referenceto Mr. Charles T. 

 Druery's Observations). By F. 0. Boweb, M.A., F.L.S. 



[Read 18th December, 1884.] 



(Plates XI. & XII.) 



Mb. C. T. Dbtteby has already drawn the attention of the 

 Society in two successive papers to AtJiyrium Filix-foemina, var. 

 clarissima, ascribing to that plant a mode of transition from the 

 sporophore generation (or Fern-plant), to the oophore (or pro- 

 thallus), without the intervention of spores. He has pursued 

 the subject with success, as far as it is possible without sub- 

 jecting the matter to a detailed microscopical investigation. 

 We are indebted to this observer not only for the communi- 

 cations already received from him, but also for his generosity in 

 supplying to the Eoyal Gardens at Kew material fitted for the 

 more detailed microscopical analysis of the process. Without 

 further recapitulation of Mr. Druery's results, I may at once 

 proceed briefly to describe the observations which I have made 

 on the cultures now in progress at Kew. Many minute details 

 will be deferred for the present till the investigation is com- 

 pleted ; the chief results arc, however, of such importance as to 

 justify a preliminary notice of them. 



