3IO GENERAL REVIEW. 



cases to be sown carefully, and then the cultivator's hopes of 

 raising a stock of any particular kind are doomed to dis- 

 appointment. M. Mayer has succeeded in raising Gleichenia 

 cicarpa and Marattia latifolia from spores. The Gleichenia 

 he succeeded in raising in large numbers, but the process is 

 slow, a period of five months intervening between the appear- 

 ance of the prothallium frond and the development of the first 

 young frond-spores. Marattia latifolia produced prothallia a 

 month after sowing, and in another month they were sufficiently 

 advanced to be pricked off in pans, and in a further period of 

 six to eight months the first young fronds made their appearance. 

 Every attempt to propagate any of the Hymenophyllaceae from 

 spores failed. In the last-named group the germination of the 

 spores takes place before they are detached from the spore- 

 cases, and the least check to their vegetation is fatal. Some 

 of the more robust and fertile Ferns, on the other hand, produce 

 spores which will germinate when taken from dried herbarium 

 specimens twenty years old. 



With respect to the supposed hybrid Ferns we can say but 

 little, since up to the present time we have no positive evidence 

 of their production. Asplemum ebenoides is supposed to be a 

 natural hybrid between A. ebeneum x Camptosarus rhizophyllus 

 (see 'Jour. Hort. Soc./ vol. i. new series, p. 137, with figures). 

 It is of N. American origin, having been found growing wild 

 on the banks of the Schuylkill, about eight miles from Phila- 

 delphia, by Mr R. Robinson Scott of the latter place. 



Pteris versicolor, P. quadriaurita, var. argyrea, and P. cretica 

 albo-lineata, are probably spore-sports, as also are the numerous 

 crested, depauperated, or furcate forms of Athyrium, Lastrea, 

 Scolopendrium, Pteris, Gymnogramma, and other genera. Some 

 seedling forms of Lomaria gibba are much larger and more 

 vigorous than the typical species ; and it has been suggested 

 that they are hybrids between the last-named plant and Blech- 

 num braziliense, or its variety B. b. corcovadense. 



A plant of Pteris (P. serrulato-tremuld) originated quite 

 accidentally at Chiswick a few years ago, and is believed to 

 J}e a hybrid between P. tremula and P. serrulata, itself one 

 of the most variable of species when propagated from spores 

 (see * Jour. Royal Hort. Soc., ; vol. iv. new series, p. 38, fig. v.) 



Todea intermedia is a wild intermediate form which combines 

 the characters of T. pellucida and T. superba. Mr Thos. Moore, 

 F.L.S., thus alludes to the variations or spore-sports of Lomaria 

 in the ' Florist : ' " Lomaria gibba crispa is a sport raised by 

 Mrs E. Cole & Sons, which is of dwarfish habit, and so 

 densely leafy and wavy that the edges of the pinna take on a 



