PROPAGATION, DEVELOPMENT, AND CULTURE. 23 



is supplied. In hothouses, where the plants stand and 

 shed their spores, the latter germinate freely on the undis- 

 turbed soil, or on any damp brickwork with which they 

 come in contact, or on the upright sides of the pots in 

 which the plants are growing, if these are so circumstanced 

 as to remain continually damp. They grow very readily on 

 the rough surface of a piece of sandstone-rock, just kept 

 moistened by water constantly but slowly dripping upon it. 



The most convenient way, however, to raise Ferns from 

 the spores, where cultivation is the object, is to sow them 

 on the surface of peat soil, in pots of convenient size, the 

 surface of the soil being kept an inch or more below the 

 level of the pot rim, so that a piece of flat glass may be 

 laid over the top, to secure a close and constantly moist 

 atmosphere, and prevent rapid evaporation from the soil. 



The pots should be nearly half-filled with small pieces of 

 broken potsherds or of broken bricks, and the soil itself 

 should be used rather coarse than fine, the surface being 

 left rough, that is, not pressed down close and even. The 

 pots should be set in pans or feeders, in which water should 

 be kept so long as the soil does not become saturated. By 

 this means, the soil may be kept at the required degree of 

 continual dampness ; but if by any chance saturation seems 



