Vol. 45 i No. 10 
BULLETIN 
OF THE 
TORREY BOTANICAL CLUB 
OCTOBER, 1918 
Regeneration in Phegopteris polypodioides* 
ELIZABETH WUIST BROWN 
(WITH THREE TEXT FIGURES) 
INTRODUCTION 
The fact that plants are able to reproduce lost parts was 
known long before it was discovered that animals possessed this 
same power. It was natural that the first experimental investi- 
gation on regeneration in plants should have been carried on with 
the higher plants as it was a common practise to propagate many 
plants by means of cuttings. However, the study of regeneration 
has since been extended to include not only the lower groups of 
plants, such as the algae, fungi, liverworts, mosses and ferns, but 
also many groups of animals. This has resulted in the accumu- 
lation of a large amount of evidence regarding the possibilities of 
regeneration by most groups of organisms. 
Experimental evidence has also indicated that the regenerative 
power of some plants is much greater in earlier than later life, 
while in others this power is lost completely in later life. 
Goebel (2, pp. 196-203), experimenting with ferns, found that 
the primary leaves of the young sporophytes of some ferns, either 
while attached to the sporophyte or cut off and placed under 
moist conditions, were able to regenerate new fern plants or 
prothallia or intermediate forms between leaves and prothallia. 
Here the regenerative power seemed confined to the primary 
* Contribution from the Osborn Botanical Laboratory. 
{The BULLETIN for September (45: 353-360. #1. 9) was issued September 20, 1918.] 
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