INCREASE BY BUDS. 367 



from the minute black scaly wart which breaks out 

 of the membrane, to the well-formed fern with four 

 or five fronds. The leaves on which this phenomenon 

 occurs are flaccid and procumbent ; and as they gra- 

 dually decay on the moist earth, the new plantlets 

 strike their roots into the soil, and become independ- 

 ent. Woodwardia radicans, again, a noble species 

 from the south of Europe, forms, near the point of its 

 fronds, a plant, which grows to such an extent as to 

 have, not rarely, half-a-dozen fronds a foot in length, 

 yet deriving all its support from the main plant. 

 Others, as Aspl. radicans, A. rachirhizon Adiantum 

 caudatum, &c., have the tip of the frond drawn out 

 mto a long filament on which the young plants grow : 

 and it is a common mode of increasing such species 

 to peg the tail down to the earth with a hair-pin, 

 where the progeny soon root, and can be potted off. 

 Again, Cystopteris Imlbifera forms little bulbs on the 

 under side of the mid-rib. These are green, egg- 

 shaped bodies, nearly as big as peas, composed of two 

 very thick fleshy leaves, like cotyledons, joined to the 

 rib by a connexion which severs with a slight touch. 

 They fall on the ground ; or they may be placed up- 

 right on the soil of a pot, when in a few weeks they 

 send out tiny fronds of the proper form, and a plant 

 is made. There is a remarkable mode of increase in 

 the genus Neplirolepis. These elegant Ferns, known 

 by their lengthened comb-like fronds, send forth be- 

 neath the soil long runners like slender wires, which 

 at their extremities develop a thick oblong knob. On 



