74 REPORT — 1844. 



garden, in a stiff soil, almost every frond is fertile, while in a peat-bed about three 

 yards off almost every frond is sterile : I know not whether botanists (a name 

 to which I have no pretension, though offering a paper in the Botanical Section) 

 would expect to find crosses or new varieties spring up from seed in a class of plants 

 which have no recognisable organs of generation ; but we find it so in practice. I 

 possess a species of Gymnogramma which was obtained from seed by J . S. Henderson, 

 gardener to Earl Fitzwilliam at Milton : it is different from any previously cultivated 

 species. I also have a plant of my own which appears to be (and 1 have no doubt 

 is) a Pteris, unlike any plant I before possessed, or that I recollect to have seen ; from 



its appearance 1 should take it to be a cross between Pteris and P. flexuosa, but 



unfortunately the latter beautiful plant has never fructified with me. I find a great dif- 

 ference in the frequency with which the ferns propagate themselves spontaneously 

 from seed : the genus Pteris is among the most frequent, and springs up of various 

 species in all directions : Blechnum, Doodia and Gymnogramma also spring up freely, 

 as do some species of Diplazium ; Cheilanthes and Dicksonia frequently occur : of 

 Polypodiums I have had very few seedlings ; the same may be said of exotic Aspi- 

 diums, and only a few Aspleniums. I have this year adopted what I believe to be a 

 new method in raising ferns from seed, and, as far as I can at present judge, with 

 complete success : the plan I have adopted is to obtain a block of peat turf, such as 

 is sold in York for the purpose of lighting fires; that I thoroughly soak in water, and 

 then place in a cucumber frame ; then I sow the seed, and keeping them shaded from 

 the sun, I have a good crop of plants ; but I am yet unable to determine whether 

 they will prove to be the species sown, three of which have not before been, as I be- 

 lieve, cultivated in England ; the species are Polypodium memhranifolium, Asplenium 



variifolium and Alsophila , all from Norfolk Island. 



The seed of ferns is so volatile and so fills the air, that though I have used a good 

 deal of care to prevent seed from finding its way to my seed-beds, I am as yet unable 

 to assure myself of possessing the new species. In the work on Australia from the 

 pen of ray friend and relative James Backhouse, there is a notice of the occurrence 

 of many species of Ferns ; and from his observations on the native habits and habitats 

 of several species I have derived great advantage, especially so by planting a consi- 

 derable number on decayed trunks of trees, where they grow with a vigour such as 

 I never before experienced : a particular instance is the beautiful Asplenium Nidus, a 

 plant I have had for years, but which was always in so feeble a state that it was 

 scarcely able to maintain existence ; and I had sent it out to nurse, under the care of 

 our experienced curator, in the orchideous stove in the Museum Gardens ; still it 

 never put on a healthy appearance till planted in part of the stump of our old willow, 

 where it now flourishes in the greatest vigour, and is putting forth its fertile fronds. 



Further Experiments and Observations on the Argonauta Argo. JBt/ Madame 

 Jeanette Power, Communicated by Professor Owen, F.R.S. 



Prof. Owen communicated two memoirs which he had received from Madame 

 Jeanette Power on the Paper Nautilus {Argonauta Argo). He premised some brief 

 observations on the uncertainty which had prevailed from the time of Aristotle to 

 that of Cuvier, as to the real nature of the molluscous fabricator of the Argonaut 

 shell, and alluded to the opinion entertained by many conchologists to within the 

 last six or eight years, that the Cephalopod usually found in the Argonaut shell was 

 a parasitic occupant. The thin expanded membranes which characterize one pair of 

 the arms of this Cephalopod, had usually been described, up to the same period, as 

 the sails by which the Argonaut was wafted along the surface of the sea, whilst the 

 six long and slender arms were supposed to serve as oars, extending from the sides 

 of the boat; and the little navigator, thus fancifully depicted, had been a favourite 

 subject of imagery in the song of the poet, from Callimachus to Byron. 



Madame Power, during a residence in Sicily in 1833 and 1834, had made obser- 

 vations on the numerous specimens of the Argonauta Argo, confined in submarine 

 cages at Messina, tending to prove that the Cephalopod inhabiting that shell was its 

 true constructor, and that the supposed sails were the organs concerned in the forma- 

 tion and repair of the shell. These observations were communicated by Madame 



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