Ferns and Fern Culture. 81 
Species such as Adiantum cuneatum and A. Farleyense, 
which form clusters of crowns, may be propagated by 
carefully pulling the crowns apart, retaining to each one 
every root possible. To facilitate the operation the soil 
should be gently shaken or washed away; the crowns 
must then be separated, the roots disentangled, and the 
plants potted at once to prevent their becoming dry. 
They should be kept close and shaded for a few days to 
prevent undue evaporation and loss of vigour. The plan 
of cutting through the crowns and ball of roots is a very 
bad one. It severs many roots from the crowns to which 
they belong, and this materially reduces the ability of the 
plants to survive. It is far better to take a little more 
trouble and separate the crowns, carefully retaining the 
roots as intact as possible. The best time for propaga- 
tion by division in the various ways already described is 
February and March. The plants are then either entirely 
at rest or only just beginning to grow, and therefore do 
not suffer as they would when in full growth. Those 
with rhizomes may be divided when growing as well as 
when dormant, and they will not feel any ill effectsif the 
instructions here given are followed. 
Ferns, which grow by means of an upright caudex, as 
the Tree Ferns, and others which do not rise above the 
soil but keep to one crown, are not amenable to increase 
by division, but must be propagated from spores. Nearly 
every species produces spores, though some of them very 
sparingly, and a few varieties are quite sterile. There is 
a marked difference in the freedom of germination of 
some species and varieties as compared with others. 
There appears to be a law operating among them which 
in some mysterious manner restricts the production from 
spores of those kinds.readily propagated by bulbils or by 
division of their rhizomes; while, on the other hand, 
those which can only be increased sparingly by division, 
may be raised in thousands from spores. 
SPORES. 
Propagation by spores is the most interesting of all 
means of increasing the stock of plants, and it is very 
wonderful from first to last. 
F 
