THE FERN FAMILY. 307 



THE FERN FAMILY (Filices). 



Well-known evergreen or deciduous plants, distributed over 

 a large portion of the earth's surface, and deservedly much 

 grown and admired in gardens. Most of the species are very 

 readily propagated by brown dust-like bodies (spores), borne in 

 little cases arranged in rows, dots, or lines, on the under sur- 

 face of the frond (leaf). These spores are so light that they 

 are blown about by the slightest breath of air, and come up 

 like weeds in most Ferneries. There is considerable differ- 

 ence in the time occupied in germinating by spores of different 

 genera or species. For example, Gymnogramma, Pteris, and 

 Aspleniums, grow up freely in a few weeks after being sown ; 

 while Trichomanes, Hymenophyllum, Marattias, and others, 

 do not grow very freely under any circumstances, and take 

 months to germinate. 



The spores should be gathered as soon as ripe, and either 

 kept in dry paper until spring, or sown at once on the surface 

 of well-drained pots, the pots being covered with a flat circular 

 piece of glass, and placed in a moist propagating case or frame. 

 If the seedlings come up too thickly, forming a layer of liver- 

 wort-like growth on the pot-tops, pans of moist sandy earth 

 may be prepared, and pieces of the green growth taken up and 

 pricked off, at about an inch apart, after which give a gentle^ 

 watering, and return the pans into the case until the young 

 growth becomes established. If the young growths (prothallia) 

 are not pricked off in this way, the stronger choke the weaker, 

 and so many plants are lost ; and in the case of new or rare 

 kinds this is, of course, to be avoided as much as possible. 

 Some propagators cut the fertile fronds off the plants they wish 

 to propagate, and lay them, spores downwards, on a pan of 

 moist earth, securing them with bent twigs or little pegs. By 

 adopting this plan, the frond may be cut and pegged down 

 some little time before the spore-cases burst ; for if this happens 

 many of the spores are dispersed and lost. In the case of free- 

 growing kinds, the plant may be set above a thin layer of 

 old coal-ashes or sandy earth, and the spores allowed to fall 

 naturally and germinate, after which they can be pricked off 

 when in the intermediate stage, or left until the fronds appe'ar, 

 and they are large enough to be potted- Many Aspleniums, 

 Adiantums, and Osmunda orientalis, are proliferous, and these 

 are readily multiplied by cutting off the fronds and pegging 

 them down, so as to enable the young plants to root ; or in 

 some cases they can be removed with a little bit of the frond, 



