28 



A few ferns are really barren, though producing ap- 

 parent spores in abundance, Asp. trichomanes confltiens to 

 wit, and the futility of sowing is seen at once on the micro- 

 scopic field, the assumed spores being seen as mere brown 

 snuffy dust and not as the regular little egg-shaped bodies 

 which perfect spores display. With thoroughly fertile ferns 

 the spores are so abundant that it is advisable to treat as 

 above but a very minute portion of a frond so that this abund- 

 ance may be fairly grasped, and also the absurdity of sowing 

 a score of thousands in a pot or pan scarcely capable of 

 accommodating as many hundreds. 



It is a common practice to lay down an entire frond on 

 smooth paper, upon which the spores are shed in a few 

 hours so thickly as to produce a sort of brown replica of 

 the frond itself, such replica consisting of millions of spores, 

 and this, in the amateur's hands, constitutes a temptation 

 to sow too thickly, often with failure as a result, very thin 

 sowing alone giving the infant ferns a fair chance. 



With these warnings we may now describe the actual 

 sowing. In order that the spores may not be upset by 

 intrusive worms or handicapped by spores of mosses and 

 confervae we fill a well-drained pot or pan with good fern 

 compost of loam leaf-mould and sand (2, 2 and i), and, 

 topping this with a few crumbs of the loam, we scald it 

 thoroughly with boiling water. Letting it cool, the spores 

 are scattered thinly and evenly over the surface. The pot is 

 then covered with a glass slip and put away in a cool well- 

 lighted Wardian case or greenhouse, out of direct sunshine, 

 and left severely alone. To prevent drying out, it may 

 stand in a saucer in which a little water may be kept. 

 Since a very small thimble or thumb-pot suffices for a fair 

 number of plants, a capital plan, where several sowings are 

 concerned, is to fill a square pan with cocoanut fibre and 

 pack the little pots, after sowing, in this, covering the lot 

 with one pane of glass. In this way the risk of drying out 

 is minimized, since it is only necessary to keep the fibre 

 moist. No water must be given overhead until the soil is 

 covered with the green growth produced from the spores. 



