190 BOMBAY NATURAL HISTORY SOCIETY. 
that with a thin layer of powdered charcoal, and cover that with a 
little less than one-eighth of an inch of the burnt brick powder. 
Smooth the surface, and press it gently so as to consolidate it. 
On this surface the spores should be sprinkled evenly and not too 
thickly, covered with a glass, a plain common finger-glass is 
very good, and water gently poured on the outside of the glass so as 
to moisten the earth in the pot without disturbing the spores, and 
by watering in this way from time to time the earth under the 
glass should be kept damp. After a time the bright green prothal- 
lia will appear, and after another interval the first frond curled up 
at the edge of the prothallium, But patience is needed at this stage, 
as the prothallia will sometimes be a long time in making their 
appearance ; with other ferns the prothallia will come up very rapidly, 
but the fronds will be along time in appearing. As soon as there 
are three fronds, the fern should be taken out of the germinating 
pot by means of a thin pointed stick and planted in a good ordinary 
mould, and kept without glass in the shade for a few days, when it 
will be fit to put in some place where if may get a little early morn- 
ing sun, When once the plant is recognizable as afern the progress 
of its growth differs very much. Some species grow very rapidly, 
so that in fifteen months I have grown a fern with stalks to its fronds 
four or five feet high, and the fronds stretching out from six to 
eight feet from side to side. On the other hand, I have had other 
species apparently refusing to grow at all for two or three years, 
and then getting on all right. On the table you will see some speci- 
mens of the ordinary way in which seedling ferns grow in size, 
You may ask, what is the good of taking all this trouble? In the 
first place it is very interesting to watch the whole course of fern 
lifey and to study the infantile forms of ferns. Then you can often 
get a piece of fern frond with spores on it from places from which 
it would be dificult to get a fern. It is also much easier to take on 
one’s walks half-a-dozen envelopes and fill them with fern 
fronds, than to take a coolie and a basket to carry roots you 
may wish to dig up, or to find some fern which you covet, while 
walking alone, and after digging it up, having to carry it home 
in your hand. At the same time I believe that in the study 
of the rudimentary forms of ferns will be a great means of 
determining to what class a fern belongs. Those who have had 
anything to do with the names of ferns must know how tiresome it 
is to find the same fern known by different names. Now where 
