TKANSACTIONS OF SECTION K, 867 



number of years) have only resulted in three or four plants ; but these three or 

 four are, however, not only copiously fertile, but have produced many plants. 



In the athyrioid Trichomanes the only peculiarity connecting it with Asplenimn 

 marinum consists in the long narrow pinnre being substituted for the usual rounded 

 ones, and in the basal pinn;e being large, which is not the case in other forms of 

 Asplenium Trichomanes. The change from pinnate to bipinnate is evidence of a 

 cross with Athyrium, for the author has never heard of a bipinnate-fronded 

 Asple7iiiim T-tchomanes; the bipinnate lower half of the fronds have the pinnce 

 bent, some even at right angles to the frond (as is the case with the variety of 

 Asplenium Trichomanes that was used in this cross). Thece pinnae being bent at 

 right angles makes it impossible to show the character with a pressed frond. The 

 reproductive organs largely imitate Asplenimn Trichomanes. A portion of the 

 fronds are not bipinnate, and in these the pinnae are very large at the base. 



Two plants having this bipinnate character are almost identical, and some 

 others now approaching maturity will be very similar, whilst others show no 

 attempt up to the present time to be bipinnate, and these have the large lengthy 

 pinnae of the sea spleenwort. 



2. On more than one Plant from the same Prothallus, 

 By E. J. Lowe, F.R.S. 



Experiments have now contradicted the assertion that only one cell on a pro- 

 thallus can be impregnated, and that only one plant can be produced. 



It must be borne in mind that what holds good in a wild state does not neces- 

 sarily affect artificial impregnation, i.e., where the strongest survive, to the 

 destruction of the weaker. Taking two notable examples, the variety victoria of 

 the lady fern and the cristatujn of the Nephrodium palleacewn, both remarkable 

 varieties, and now to be seen in every good fernery, have never again been found 

 growing wild, although by artificial culture they are raised by thousands. 



In artificially cultivated plants we have some important instances. In 1885 

 an Athyrium was inseminated with eight varieties, and amongst the plants three 

 were found growing so closely together as to be difficult to separate. These 

 eventually proved to be all alike, and were moreover so remarkable from having 

 two kinds of fronds (the first instance known in the lady fern) as to make it 

 certain they were produced on the same prothallus. Again, in 1889 there was the 

 case ofa Scolopendrium,in which four varieties of a Scolopendrium from insemination 

 produced three plants under similar circumstances. These were also alike, and had 

 fronds that were undulate, muricate, periferent, and caudate, the tail or horn being 

 '2h inches long and branched. 



Further experiments, in which immediately on a frond appearing it was 

 removed, caused the prothallus to throw out other branches or fronds, which 

 were as speedily removed ; and in this way seven plants resulted from this one 

 prothallus, but this development was most conclusively shown in the experiment 

 of dividing and repeatedly subdividing a prothallus, as then forty plants were 

 obtained, and the prothallus divisions kept healthy for several years, although for 

 several years previously they had been kept alive and unimpregnated. 



3. Results in Experiments in the Cross-fertilising of Plants, Shrubs, and 

 Trees. By Wm. Saunders, Director of the Dominion Experimental 

 Farms. 



In this Paper the writer gives an account of the results achieved by experi- 

 ments conducted by him during the past twenty-five years in the cross-fertilising 

 of plants, trees, and shrubs. This work has included experiments with different 

 sorts of wheat, barley, oats, pease, and rye ; also with different varieties of the 

 gooseberry, red currant, white currant, black currant, raspberry, blackberry, grape, 



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