24 BRITISH FERNS 



off, and the base well washed. All that is necessary to do now is 

 to put a couple of inches of well-washed silver sand into the bottom 

 of a glass jar ; just moisten this sand, drop the bases evenly over 

 the surface, cover close with a glass slip, and stand in a well-lighted 

 but shady corner of a room, conservatory, or elsewhere. In a few 

 weeks in the growing season, or if a little warmth be afforded, 

 little white pimples will appear on every piece, and in time each 

 pimple will become a plant, only needing to bring on in the usual 

 way to become a specimen. By actual count we have found thirty- 

 six such plants on one inch-long base. In this species the finest 

 forms, i.e. the Crispum, or frilled ones, bear no spores at all, and 

 hence this faculty of basal propagation is particularly welcome 

 in their case, though applicable to all. With regard to the non- 

 crown-forming Ferns, that is, those which have creeping rootstocks, 

 like the various Polypodiums, Cysiopteris montana, Lastrea thelyp- 

 teris, and also the common Bracken Pteris aquilina, all, with 

 the exception of the last, can be multiplied independently of their 

 spores by severing portions of their travelling rootstocks, taking 

 care to secure a frond or two and growing tips provided with roots. 

 These, inserted in open leafy soil, will soon take hold and afford 

 specimens in time. Pteris aquilina roots so deeply, and has such 

 brittle rootstocks, that it is practically impossible to multiply it 

 in the same way, the only method being to dig out, in the winter, 

 a large, solid mass of soil containing its dormant roots, and transfer 

 this en masse, on the then probable chance of survival. Incidentally 

 we may remark that P. aquilina has afforded some very fine varieties 

 which render these hints of value. 



Spore Propagation 



Having considered the non-sexual methods and opportunities 

 for propagation of which Ferns permit, we may now turn to those 

 connected with Nature's primary reproductive material, viz. the 

 spores. In our chapter on the Life History of Ferns we have shown 

 how such reproduction is brought about, and a consideration of 

 that will help in the comprehension of what follows. The spores of 

 Ferns are borne usually upon the frond backs, but are sometimes 

 borne on modified fronds, or parts of fronds, devoted to spores alone. 

 This we may see in the frond tips of the Royal Fern Osimmda regalis, 

 the so-called Flowering Fern, because the spore clusters bear a faint 

 resemblance to somewhat withered Spiraa blooms, in the little 

 Ferns, Ophioglossum vulgaium and Botrychium lunaria, and as a 

 sort of intermediate grade in the contracted fertile fronds of the 

 Hard ¥exn,Blechnum spicant, and the Parsley Fern, A llosorus crispus. 

 In the other species they are seen to be arranged in dots, lines, or 

 marginal patches, and it is according to these arrangements that 

 Fern genera are classified, since they are found to constitute the 



