^34 



I therefore took two small shallow pans about five inches 

 diameter by three deep, and having put plenty of drainage, 

 filled them nearly full with fine open fern compost of 

 loam, leaf mould with a little sand, pressing this down flat 

 with the bottom of a similar pan. This done, I placed 

 a piece of paper on the soil upon which I poured boiling 

 water until scalding water ran freely away below. I then 

 covered both ^\'ith glass slips and allowed them to get 

 cold. Meanw^hile, I had severed the pinnules bearing the 

 dot-like spore heaps and laid these upon a glass slip on 

 the field of my microscope under a glass shade, and, after 

 a few hours, on examination I found the glass fairly 

 profusely peppered over with the shed spores escaped from 

 the burst capsules. I then breathed upon the glass until 

 it was covered with mist, when a small puff blew away 

 the now dried pinnules and the empty spore cases and 

 left the clean spores attached temporarily to the glass. 

 By this it will be seen that I got rid of any conferval or 

 other germs possibly adhering to the debris in question, 

 and secured the purest possible culture on the already 

 sterilized soil. I then tapped the glass slip gently over 

 the two pans, distributing the spores as evenly as possible, 

 and after covering them again with glass, installed them in 

 a Wardian case facing north, standing them in two red- 

 ware saucers containing a little water. 



In due coarse the liitle green prothalli made their 

 appearance in great numbers and in a few months, 

 assumed full size and became fairly crow^ded. No signs 

 of the ferns proper appeared during the winter and even 

 well into the spring, although the prothalli increased 

 abnormally in size, they remained apparently otherwise 

 in statu quo. About May, therefore, I poured tepid water 

 over the prothalli, and also immersed the pots in water 

 until the prothalli were flooded from below, and very 

 shortly after the first fronds began to push up in quantity, 

 and it became evident that more room was required than 

 their crowded condition provided. Some pans, nine inches 



