FERN PROPAGATION AND CULTURE 23 



bulbils appear freely on the edges of the conglomerate, or infinitely 

 branched fronds, and in a recent find by the writer at Torquay the 

 crested fronds are viviparous, quite on Polystichum lines, at the 

 juncture of the stalk with the frond proper, and even in the angles 

 of the ramose divisions. Such bulbils easily lend themselves 

 for propagation, if severed with a small piece of frond, layered, 

 and kept close. 



In all these cases the bulbils are obvious to the naked eye ; 

 but it has been found that where none actually exist, nor indeed 

 would exist, without artificial treatment, they can be induced to 

 form, and often do so very freely. The caudices, or rootstocks, 

 of many Ferns are built up of the persistent bases of old and long 

 dead fronds, dead, that is, so far as their leafy portion and most of 

 their stalks are concerned, but at the very bottom there is an inch or 

 two of fleshy base which retains vitality for years, and it has been 

 found that when the central growing part of the fern is damaged or 

 destroyed the innate vitality of the remainder is apt to find vent 

 by the formation of buds, which in time restore the plants. Under 

 natural conditions, however, where central growth has stopped 

 owing to the lengthening caudex having grown so far out of the 

 soil as to be impoverished by drought and over-exposure, the 

 still living portion we have described is buried in dead and rotting 

 matter, and as the first essential of such incipient bulbil growth is 

 access to light for their fronds, and to fresh soil for their rootlets, 

 artificial treatment is alone likely to afford them the needful chance. 

 This treatment consists in digging up the old caudex and removing 

 with a sharp knife all the dead matter, roots and all, until the 

 still green or sappy vital part is reached. This is then well washed 

 and potted up in good compost in as small a pot as possible. If then 

 kept close under a tumbler, in a few weeks bulbils are almost sure 

 to appear as little white excrescences, and possibly a very valuable 

 plant is not only saved, but freely multiplied. In our own experience 

 with one of the oldest and finest collections of British Fern varieties 

 in the country, the great bulk -of which had apparently joined the 

 majority, the plants were removed and thus drastically treated, 

 with the result that not only was there hardly a failure whenever 

 a spark of life was left, but many precious original wild finds, 

 instead of being solitary specimens, may now be reckoned by the 

 dozen or more. The common Hartstongue (Scolopendrium vulgar e) 

 affords a perhaps still more remarkable instance of this innate 

 vitality. The old caudex, as already described, consists of old 

 persistent bases, many scores of which can be pulled off if a plant 

 be unearthed and the pulling off process commenced at the 

 bottom. These bases are hard, dark green, sausage-shaped, and 

 vary from half an inch to an inch in length, according to the robust- 

 ness of the plant concerned. The larger ones can be cut across into 

 two. Each will bear a little bundle of roots, which should be cut 



