FERN GROWING 8i 



and will require another year to enable it to wholly assume the 

 character. 



Wfe have in this experiment the singular fact, that instead 

 of raising plants with characters half-way between the two, 

 there is an exact reproduction of the cruciate character of the 

 Aspidium angulare transferred to the Aspidium aculeatum. 



The great disparity in the numbers, and the strong resem- 

 blance to one or other of the parents in all but five of the 

 seedlings, point to the difficulty of producing hybrids, and ex- 

 plains why it is we do not find more of them. 



These hybrids are copiously soriferous, and the spores 

 appear as naturally formed as in any other Ferns, but they 

 are mostly sterile, as only one in many thousands can be 

 made to germinate. In ten years the author sowed one 

 hundred pans with these spores, and as they were sown 

 thickly it is an under-estimation to say there were one 

 hundred thousand, yet not a single plant was raised. The 

 same ill luck attended Mr. Clapham of Scarborough, Mr. 

 Clift of Birmingham, Mr. Sang of Kirkcaldy, Messrs. Stans- 

 field of Sale, Major Cowburn of Dennel Hill, Mrs. Grant of 

 Hillersdon, Messrs. Pearson of Chilwell, and Messrs. Dickson 

 of Chester ; on the other hand, the thousands of spores per- 

 sistently sown by Mr. Carbonell of Usk yielded nine plants ; 

 those by Mr. E. F. Fox of Bristol, four plants ; those by 

 Colonel Jones of Clifton, one plant ; whilst those by Mr. 

 Barnes of Milnthorpe produced from thirty to forty— the 

 amount cannot be told exactly, as most of them were returned 

 to Colonel Jones whilst in a young state and dispersed 

 amongst friends. Twelve were sent to me, and now they 

 have arrived at maturity only five of them turn out to be 

 Aspidium aculeatum, whilst there are only two at the Clifton 

 Zoological Gardens. At the utmost Mr. Barnes could not 

 have raised above ten that were true Aspidium aculeatum, 

 and he must have sown above a hundred thousand spores ; 



F 



