CULTIVATION. 369 



pteris, and Adiantum, while comparatively only a few 

 of the srnooth-fronded species of the division Eremo- 

 brya produce plants from spores. This subject yet 

 requires much experimental investigation before 

 satisfactory reasons can be assigned for what is here 

 stated. 



The majority of Ferns that do not increase by 

 spores, often, however, readily do so by other means, 

 such as by offsets, and viviparous buds, or bulbils 

 produced on the upper surface, on the apex of the 

 fronds, or in the axils of the segments, which, when 

 placed under favourable circumstances, become plants. 

 Ferns of caespitose vernation will occasionally produce 

 buds or crowns laterally on the old caudex, which 

 may be readily separated for propagation with a 

 sharp knife ; when the vernation consists of a creep- 

 ing rhizome, such may be cut in pieces of whatever 

 length desirable, with a bud or growing point in each 

 piece, and, as with the separated lateral crowns, 

 should be placed in as small a pot as convenient, with 

 soil suitable to their kind (selected according to the 

 rule already given for establishing plants), and the 

 whole subjected to an extra close atmosphere till 

 thoroughly established. Up to the present time at- 

 tempts to propagate Ferns by separated portions de- 

 void of any previously joined bud have proved fruitless; 

 although by some a solitary instance in Scolopen- 

 drium vulgare is considered sufficient evidence to the 

 contrary, as portions of the base of its fronds, if 

 separated, inserted in soil, and kept close and moist 

 by the aid of a bell-glass, will readily strike ; so also 

 with some of the abnormal forms of the same genus, if 

 portions of the margins of their fronds are treated in 



