here that such advances are almost invariably, if not quite 

 so, on the same characteristic lines, that is, the division is 

 merely increased in degree, no really new character being 

 introduced, but only an enhanced one of the same type. 

 Thus, a crested or tasselled form may produce heavier 

 tassels, a dissected one still greater dissection, and so on, 

 though, of course, the possibility is not excluded of a 

 secondary sport introducing a different character in con- 

 junction with the first, as happened in the case of the 

 wonderful "superbum" section of Lady Ferns raised by 

 the writer, in which in two generations the spores of a 

 perfectly non-crested fern broke into two distinct sections 

 of quite plain finely-dissected plumose forms and of 

 extremely heavily crested ones, retaining the plumose 

 character. With these preliminary remarks, we may now 

 come to the practical part of selective culture by the spore. 

 Here, of course, the fundamental principle is to start with 

 the spores of the best varieties obtainable, having in view 

 their improvement. This, too, should be done on system- 

 atic lines. There is little or no pleasure — to the connoisseur 

 none at all — in purchasing a packet of mixed spores and 

 sowing them. The result is invariably an innumerable 

 host of inferior types, for the simple reason that there is a 

 number of such whose spores germinate more rapidly and 

 assert themselves as young plants more quickly than those 

 of the elite^ which have, consequently, no chance, being 

 crowded out and suffocated in their infancy by the 

 ''rogues," as they are termed. We have a vivid 

 recollection in this connection of sowing spores of an 

 unique fern which had been grown amidst a lot of inferior 

 varieties of the said description. A mass of prothalli (the 

 first product of the spore) was very (juickly produced, the 

 result being a dense crop of weed forms of Lady Fern. 

 Certain that we had sown a lot of spores of the desired 

 rarity, we carefully cut out these intruders with finely- 

 pointed scissors, but a second and third crop asserted 



