22 THE FLORAL WORLD AND GARDEN GUIDE. 



bunches and preventing any others, the new rod will be encouraged 

 to grow, and by the end of the season will have attained a length 

 equal to that of its parent. At the pruning season the latter will 

 in due course be cut completely away, leaving only its offspring to 

 occupy the space it formerly tilled. Thus there are no spurs, and 

 consequently less foliage, which makes the method desirable for 

 houses in which other plants have to be grown beneath the vines, 

 whose shade is often a great objection. 



The period at which grape-vines should be pruned will depend 

 upon their position, or rather on that at which it is intended they 

 shall begin to grow. It should always be done at least a month 

 before the time the buds are likely to swell, for if left till the seasonal 

 action of the plant begins, even though no sign of it may appear 

 above-ground, all the cuts then made will be found to exude sap, and 

 the drain thus made upon the system of the plant will very mate- 

 rially injure it, if death does not ensue. 



PROPAGATION OF FERNS. 



j|ERNS are only found in the most favoured spots, where 

 moisture, warmth, shade, and shelter combine. They 

 do not, however, require a great quantity of nourish- 

 ment, as they by no means affect rich soils ; but, on the 

 contrary, old walls, the fissures of moist, shady rocks, 

 and the stumps of old trees, are the situations where they flourish, 

 and particularly in warm climates, where they are found in great 

 abundance. It seems to have been a vulgar opinion of great an- 

 tiquity that ferns do not produce seed. Their seeds (spores) being 

 too minute to be distinctly observed by the unassisted eye doubtless 

 gave birth to that opinion ; nor does it appear that any attempt to 

 raise plants by this means was made till towards the end of the 

 seventeenth century; but the fact has been since established, beyond 

 the possibility of a doubt, by numerous experiments. The mode of 

 germination in these spores is, however, as different from that of 

 other vegetables as their method of producing them. They are 

 generally produced in clusters or lines on the back of the frond ; but 

 although several hundred thousand may be found on a single frond 

 of some ferns, it seems they will not produce plants except under 

 very favourable circumstances. Hence, the more common mode of 

 propagating them is by lateral offsets, which are frequently produced 

 by the tuberous-rooted species ; and the creeping-rooted kinds pro- 

 duce their single fronds, and increase with still greater facility. 



