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MR. E. J. LOWE ON SCOLOPENDRIUM VULGARE. 535 
Report or Mr. C. T. Drvery, F.LS. 
With reference to your remarkable Scolopendrium, I give 
you herewith reswmé of my observations on the material 
previously sent me in this connection. The first specimen you 
sent was a ramose prothalloid growth which I considered to be 
a species of Marchantia, a belief that was strengthened by the 
fact that on pegging it down and keeping it close it speedily 
commenced growth at all terminals precisely as that famiiy 
would do; later on, however, a dense confervoid growth, 
evidently introduced with it* (as my soil was carefully 
sterilized), so repeatedly invaded it that it perished. Mean- 
while, however, you had sent me fronds and a small plant, 
developed as you stated from similar abnormal prothalli, and 
these in themselves displayed such, to my mind, marchantioid 
characters that I sent one of the fronds to Mr. Antony Gepp, 
of the British Museum, for his opinion. The frond I sent him 
resembled a small inch-long frilled or crisped Scolopendrium, 
frond bearing a short stalk, but was of so fleshy a character 
and so distinctly growing Marchantia-fashion from its edges 
and fimbriations that I was still misled ; however, it was pro- 
nounced to be no Marchantia, but a true fern, and I found 
on renewed scrutiny, the furcate venation of Scolopendrium, 
which resolved my doubts entirely. This frond, and a 
companion, I laid down under culture; the companion frond 
was of a different shape, having pinnatifid projections, instead 
of a continuous crisped and frilled edging. These projections 
in all cases became bluntly bifid and undoubtedly prothalloid, 
the indentation of the bifid tip being a simuws occupying the 
same relative position to a thickened eushion, bearing root- 
hairs, archegonia, and antheridia (which were also developed 
in due course), as does the sinus of a normally produced pro- 
thallus. The other frond mm a very short time acted very 
differently. In this case the edges developed semi-transparent 
timbriations evidently of prothalloid nature, but the great part 
of the upper surface budded out into innumerable small pro- 
thalli crowded densely together. This frond anda third of 
similar character I have sent to Professor F. O. Bower, 
* Sterilized soil is difficult to keep so for a long time, as conferva 
(Vaucheria sessilis) grows up the damp pot and eventually enters the soil, 
and it even grows on the glass covering. 2 constantly stir the surface.— 
FE. J. L. 
