170 HARDY FEENS. 



away, and make the fernery neat, adding a little fresh, soil 

 around the plants. 



PBOPAGATION. 



JSy Spores (or Seed}. It is only for very rare species 

 that this mode of increasing the number need be resorted to, 

 such, for instance, as the Wbodsias and the American and 

 other foreign kinds. Save the spores as soon as ripe ; this 

 may be known by the bursting of the spore-cases. The spores 

 are extremely minute, but every particle must be preserved 

 carefully. Though so small as to be invisible without the aid 

 of a magnifier, yet their powers of germinating are remarkable. 

 The elder Mr. Shepherd, of the Botanic Gardens at Liverpool, 

 succeeded in raising some Ferns the spores of which were 

 brushed off fronds that had been in his herbarium for ten years. 

 We would not, however, advise the cultivator to keep his Fern- 

 spores any such length of time. If they have been saved early 

 in the summer, sow part immediately, and the rest in spring, 

 about April. To insure success, prepare a sufficient number 

 of shallow garden-pans, with bell-glasses to fit. Drain them 

 well, and fill them with sandy heath mould, sifting a small 

 part very fine for the surface. Press it down firmly, and lay 

 on the surface a number of very small sandy stones ; then 

 sprinkle the spores on the whole and cover with the glasses. 

 Pack some moss round the rim of the pans, at the bottom of 

 the bell-glasses, to keep in the moisture. This moss also 

 prevents the washing-away of the soil. Water must be given 

 only upon this moss. It will enter the soil inside by capillary 

 attraction, and keep it sufficiently moist. To prevent it drying, 

 the glasses must be shaded from the sun. The best position 

 for these seed-pans will be in a cold frame, where the sun does 

 not shine till towards evening. We choose evening for the 

 reason that a little heat will be thrown into the frame, and 

 serve to keep up a rather warmer atmosphere than the open air. 



There is a difficulty about this mode, or, indeed, any other 

 mode of raising Ferns from spores, and that is the pulling-up 



