350 BOTANICAL GAZETTE [aray 
archegonia of D. noveboracensis gave no fusions; while ten entrances 
of its own sperms into the archegonia of D. noveboracensis gave seven 
fusions. 
It should be stated that most of these 67 eggs looked bad. Some, 
however, seemed good and appeared to be in the stage in which fusion 
would have been expected to occur if sperms of its own species had 
been present. Young archegonia in various stages were present on the 
prothalli sectioned, and sporelings appeared in this culture of Dryop- 
teris noveboracensis before, during, and after the time that the experi- 
ments were made, so that it seems very improbable that the eggs were 
bad at the time of entrance in all the 67 archegonia in which entrance 
was obtained. In view of the supposed hybrids described among 
Dryopteris species by Dowex (8) and BENEDICT (I, 2), this result 
is of considerable interest. 
Using Athyrium Filix-foemina as the female parent, the entrance 
of the sperms of Pteris multifida into fifteen archegonia, and of the 
sperms of Asplenium montanum into the six archegonia, and of the 
sperms of Asplenium platyneuron into seventeen archegonia gave no 
_ fusions, while the entrance of its own sperms into nine archegonia gave 
four fusions. 
In one attempted cross of Asplenium platyneuron sperms with 
Athyrium Filix-foemina eggs, antheridia of A. Filix-joemina also 
were present. In this case nine entrances were obtained and one fusion 
resulted. In the attempted reciprocal cross of Athyrium Filix- 
joemina sperms with Asplenium platyneuron eggs, sperms of Asplenium 
platyneuron were present; six entrances and two sporelings of Asple- 
nium platyneuron were obtained. Evidently when sperms of two 
species are present, fusion may still take place between the egg and 
sperm of its own species; the presence of foreign sperms does not 
prevent this fusion. 
As these experiments were made at the same time as the attempted 
crosses between the eggs of Athyrium Filix-foemina and the Sper 
of Asplenium platyneuron, they show that the failure to obtain fusions 
in that case was not due to a bad condition of the eggs or sperms. 
The results given above do not disprove the existence of hybrids 
or the possibility of obtaining them. Owing to lack of material and to 
various accidents during the investigation, experiments were not made 
