S8 



In the early eighties, in one of my sowings of Lady Fern 

 spores,, two young plants, when less than an inch high, 

 produced bulbils on the young fronds, a very rare occur- 

 rence, especially in that species. Eventually, strangely 

 enough, the two resulting plants turned out to belong to 

 two quite different strains. This instance of precocious 

 proliferation was put on record in the Horticultural Press, 

 with illustrations on a magnified scale, and as a result other 

 instances of proliferation were sent to me, and dorsal 

 bulbils were noted by me in A . f.f. plumosum divavicaUim. 

 In this way a sort of reputation in the bulbil line was 

 gained, which eventually led to two very unexpected 

 results, since a pinna of A. f.f. plumosum elegans, bearing 

 bulbils was sent to me, and the associated spores in that 

 identical pinna yielded that marvellously beautiful strain of 

 crested and non-crested plumosums known as the Druery 

 " superbums," and the other result was the receipt of a 

 similar portion of A. f.f. Clarissima Jones, also bearing 

 apparent bulbils. On comparing these, however, with 

 the others which had come under my notice, I came at 

 once to the conclusion that their nature was entirely 

 different, and that they were due to some sort of transfor- 

 mation of spore-producing energy instead of simple 

 proliferation. On layering these and keeping them close, 

 instead of developing whitish pimple-like growths, which 

 then produced tiny fronds in ordinary bulbil fashion, they 

 swelled and threw out transparent root-hairs in all direc- 

 tions and then gradually produced indented flattened tips, 

 which finally became true prothalli, these prothalli then 

 producing young typical ferns in the usual sexual manner. 

 I gave an account of this to the Linnean Society, but 

 as I could only shew results and not the stages "svhich led 

 up to them, and as the phenomenon was entirely new and 

 unrecorded in any previous connection, it w^as suggested 

 that I should make a fresh experiment and report again. 

 I did so after obtaining same results, and on the strength 

 of this Professor F. O. Bower took up the matter for deeper 



