FERN GROWING 25 



"It was on the under-side, during its prothalloid or liver- 

 wort life, that the reproductive organs were discovered. Thus 

 there is a dual existence : the spore producing the prothallus, 

 and the impregnated prothallus the frond-life, which in its 

 turn produces the spore to repeat the process. This discovery 

 was made in the year 1844. The late Professor Henfrey gave 

 the details in 1851, and the author remembers at once pointing 

 out to the late Professor Edward Forbes that it would not 

 be difficult to cross Ferns, and by his persuasion commenced 

 experiments. At that time there were but few well-marked 

 varieties, but in the next ten years many more were dis- 

 covered by Padley, Barnes, Clapham, Stansfield, Sim, and 

 others. 



"My first mixed spores were sown in 1855, but the crop 

 of seedlings were nearly all normal ; whilst at the present time 

 it is difficult for me to raise a normal form : one or two 

 marked varieties used to be the reward, now they can be 

 counted by hundreds. We have eventually got so far away 

 from the original species that the primitive characters seem 

 to be lost. 



" When living in Nottinghamshire there were no wild 

 Ferns near my residence, but favourable situations were in 

 course of time crowded with varieties scattered by the winds 

 from the Fernery. The author could by the year 1875 find 

 more distinct forms within a mile radius than could be 

 collected by months' diligent search in a wild Fern district. 

 This has been repeated at Shirenewton ; for, although the 

 Ferns have not been there ten years, the spores have sown 

 themselves in all directions. 



."A change of circumstances with a large number of 

 varieties of Scolopendrium vulgar e — i.e., planted where the 

 surroundings were not favourable — caused all of them to 

 return to the normal form of the species. Under pot culture 

 the author has never found varieties to degenerate ; better 



