FERN GROWING 139 



Colonel Jones used very large pans, a similar but much 

 coarser compost, and covered with a flat glass. This proved 

 more successful than the plan adopted by Mr. Fox. There is 

 less confervoid growth ; and if the prothalli are attached to 

 pieces of crock or lumps of soil, they can more readily be 

 removed to other pans. 



Dr. Fox's method as regarding the boiling water is 

 not effectual,' as was proved by many losses from conferva. 

 It requires the pans to have been plunged at least three 

 times into boiling water, and each time left in the water for 

 ten minutes. The water applied as Dr. Fox suggests is some 

 degrees below the boiling-point when supplied through a 

 small watering-pot rose. If there are damp decayed leaves 

 in the compost, worms get between them, and the author has 

 seen them uninjured after two immersions in boiling water. 

 Care must also be taken to destroy any vegetable life on the 

 pans, bell-glasses, or labels. 



It is difficult to mix a really good soil for seedlings, 

 and it is better to have a number of different mixtures, and 

 sow spores in each, in order to be more certain of success. 

 For the author's own sowing he uses what are called pint pots, 

 placing them in saucers with an inch of water for two or three 

 days, and then removing this water for a day or two. He 

 also uses good peat alone, and upturned loam sods alone, and 

 sometimes one treatment is the best, and sometimes another. 

 Most Ferns germinate very slowly in peat. Turf gathered 

 where spring tides come over it will not have any growth 

 either of Ferns or conferva. Practice and constant attention 

 to every detail are sure to succeed eventually. Major Cowburn 

 of Dennel Hill, and Mr. F. C. Clark of Street, were pro- 

 ficient at once, because they mastered all the details at 

 starting. 



In a paper that the author wrote for the January 1878 

 number of the Midland Naturalist, on " Abnormal Ferns," 



