10 INTRODUCTION. 



with Nature, or spoiling the beauty of the country ; and the 

 spores of many species if stored in a dry place may be kept 

 until you are ready to sow them. The spores of others, how- 

 ever, as Ostnunda, contain chlorophyll, and perish if not sown 

 within a few days of ripening. When they are sown under 

 suitable conditions, and germination has commenced, you are 

 at the beginning of an experiment that will provide you with 

 the means of making yourself fully and practically acquainted 

 with the process of fern development from the spore and the 

 prothallium through the oophyte and sporophyte generations, 

 and will leave you with a batch of exquisitely beautiful young 

 plants. 



The modus operandi is of the simplest. The appliances 

 are : a seed-pan (size immaterial), a bell-glass of such diameter 

 as will allow it just to stand in the seed-pan ; a small irregular 

 block of peat. The peat should not be more than a third of 

 the size of the bell-glass, and it should be baked or scalded to 

 destroy any animal or vegetable germs it may contain. Then, 

 if baked, soak it in water until moist throughout, pour about an 

 eighth of an inch of water in the seed-pan, stand the peat-block 

 as an island in the centre, and over its wet surface shake out 

 some of your fern-spores by tapping the other side of the fern- 

 frond over it. Cover all with the bell-glass and stand in a 

 shady place. No further care is needed ; it is an automatic 

 contrivance by which the peat is kept watered by the evapora- 

 tion of the water and the condensation of the vapour. Peering 

 through the bell-glass, it will be seen in due course a few days 

 in the case of Osmunda, a few months in some other species 

 that a green tinge is creeping over the peat, and a little later, 

 if this is examined through a pocket-lens, the greenness will 

 prove to be due to the presence of little prothallia. From this 



