nourishment to many, both of the smaller and larger fry. 

 The spores are shed in the autumn, and have consequently 

 to stand the ordeal of winter and early spring conditions, so 

 that in all probability there is hardly any fraction of soil 

 surface which is not disturbed, and that, of course, means 

 the destruction of such minute growths as may have arisen 

 from spores which have escaped other risks and got the 

 length of germinating at all. This, in all probability, is 

 the reason that Nature, despite the provision of such an 

 abundance of reproductive bodies, has implanted in most 

 ferns a capacity of reproduction in other ways, viz. by buds 

 and offsets. 



Many years ago we received a plant of A. f.f. crassujn, a 



somewhat tough and congested form of the Lady Fern, 



found by Mr. P. Neill Fraser, of Edinburgh. After 



becoming less and less vigorous in the open, last year 



it did not rise at all, and was to all intents and purposes 



dead. In the autumn we dug up its remains, consisting 



of a strong crown and rotting roots, without a sign of life. 



We washed it thoroughly, cut away a mass of dead matter, 



and found some living tissue in the centre. We then 



dropped the mass into a tumbler on to an inch of coarse 



washed silver sand, and at the moment of writing two 



strong little plants are pushing out from buds engendered 



quite low down, and we fully anticipate that more will 



appear. Thus this forms one more of those " resurrection " 



cases of which we have treated already in the ''Gazette," 



and another proof that one need never despair so long as 



a spark of life is left in the apparent corpse. Returning, 



however, to the spore question, the moral of our remarks 



is that one cannot be too careful when sowing spores in 



thoroughly sterilizing the soil in the first place, and in 



protecting the pot or pan from the intrusion of worms, 



stray spores or seeds, or anything that can find access 



during the development of the prothalli, and so vitiate the 



culture. 



