84 Ferns and Fern Culture. 
months before there is any sign of progress. Even 
those taken from one frond will vary, some of them 
developing weeks before others sown at the same time 
and in the same pot. 
The first indication of growth is a faint colouring of 
green on the soil. This increases until the surface is 
covered by a flat vegetable growth resembling liverwort 
in appearance. At this stage the mass should be separated 
into little patches, and planted in other pots filled with 
ordinary Fern compost. They may now be watered 
overhead with a very fine rose, covered again with 
glasses, and placed where they will receive plenty of light. 
They will require to be kept damp. Ina short time tiny 
fronds will make their appearance. They will soon need 
further division, and eventually, when large enough to 
handle, they may be potted singly, to go on their Fern- 
life, developing beauty day by day, and soon bearing 
upon their own fronds the germs of another generation. 
The process of development is full of interest and 
wonder. Not the least mysterions thing connected with 
the raising of Ferns from spores is that it is no unusual 
occurrence for a totally different kind to make its appear- 
ance in a pot from that sown in it. The stranger is 
sometimes in almost exclusive possession, while that 
which was expected is conspicuous by its absence. Even 
with the greatest care in sowing, many different kinds 
will afterwards be found in one pot, so that it is impossible 
to be sure of the species of the crop until the fronds are 
developed. Many wonderful and unaccountable facts 
might be referred to in connection with this subject, but 
it may be left with a warning to the sower not to be 
discouraged when matters do not turn out as expected, 
but to try again, when possibly an unexpected treasure 
may some day come up in the form of an entirely new 
variety. 
