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PB ACTIO AL GUIDE TO GARDEN , PLANTS 



This is briefly the way in which both 

 hothouse and hardy Ferns are raised from 

 ' seed.' The hardy Ferns with which this 

 work is chiefly concerned may be raised in 

 a cold frame, and many of them reproduce 

 themselves readily out of doors without 

 any artificial aid. "When the spores are 

 ripe they are blown about by the wind into 

 nooks and crannies, and there germinate 

 and produce plants in due course. 



Some of the rarer and more delicate 

 kinds, however, are best sown carefully, 

 and pricked out as advised. The spores 

 should never be allowed to get thoroughly 

 ripe on the fronds before gathering, other- 

 wise they may be lost altogether. A safe 

 way to harvest Fern spores is to place the 

 fronds containing fairly ripened spore- 

 cases into white paper bags, and hang 

 them up to ripen. In a few days the 

 brown spores will have escaped from the 

 spore cases, looking like brown flour or 

 dust in the bag. "When they are not likely 

 to be disturbed or blown away by draughts 

 of air, the fronds may also be placed on 

 a sheet of white paper, on to which the 

 spores will fall, leaving the shape of the 

 frond beautifully outlined on the surface. 



When Ferns admit of division this 

 operation is best performed in spring just as 

 the crowns are about to start into growth. 

 If divided in the autumn when the fronds 

 have withered it is safer to shelter the 

 divided portions in cold frames (having 

 previously potted them up) until spring. 

 Some kinds may be increased by means 

 of the bulbils on the fronds. These bulbils 

 are detached easily with the finger and 

 thumb when large enough to handle, 

 and dibbled into pots or pans of prepared 

 soil just deep enough to prevent them 

 falling over. In a, very short time they 

 root and make good plants. This is a 

 much quicker way of obtaining strong 

 plants than by spores, but comparatively 

 few ferns have the power of producing these 

 offsets or bulbils. 



Hybrid Fbens 



Although the reproductive process in 

 Ferns differs a good deal from, that of 

 ordinary flowering plants hybrids have 

 nevertheless been produced between some 

 species. But whereas man can readily 

 control the production of a hybrid in the 

 case of flowering plants by transferring 

 the easily seen pollen from one species 

 to the usually obvious stigma of another, 

 it is all more or less a matter of chance 



with Ferns. Anyway man caimot very 

 well take a microscopical antherozoid 

 and ram it down the neok of the 

 archegonium, so that he must leave the 

 operation to nature. When he wishes to 

 obtain a hybrid between two species his 

 only chance is to sow the spores of them 

 together in the same pot. Then perchance 

 an antherozoid — which has the power of 

 moving about in moisture, hence the 

 necessity of water — of one species may 

 stray into the archegonium of the other 

 species and fertilise its oosphere at the 

 base. The result would undoubtedly be 

 a hybrid when it developed and would 

 be more or less intermediate in character 

 between the two species. Genuine hybrid 

 Ferns, however, are very rare, although 

 hundreds of what may be called ' seminal ' 

 varieties of the same common species 

 exist, and are always increasing in diversity. 

 Just as in flowering plants hybrids can 

 be obtained only by closely related species 

 or genera, so with Perns. The nearer the 

 natural relationship between one species, 

 variety, or genus and another, the more 

 likelihood of obtaining a real hybrid. 



Fern ' Freaks ' 



The ordinary development of a Fern 

 as described above includes four distinct 

 stages, namely (1) the spore, (2) the 

 prothaUium, (3) sexual action between 

 antheridia and archegonia, and (4) the 

 Fern plants. It happens,however, that one 

 of these stages may be altogether missed 

 in the development of the plant. 



Sometimes the spore stage is omitted 

 altogether, andtheprothalliumis developed 

 directly on the fronds, and from it arises 

 a new plant. This is known as apospory, 

 and must not be confounded vrith the mere 

 vegetative outgrowths known as bulbils or 

 offsets alluded to before. 



Sometimes the sexual process or fusion 

 between the contents of the antheridia 

 and archegonia does not take place, owing 

 probably to one or the other being absent 

 or sterile ; nevertheless the prothaUium 

 produces a fern plant and skips the sexual 

 process. This is called apogamy. 



Instances of both apospory and apo- 

 gamy have been proved in connection with 

 several British Ferns, but a still more 

 remarkable fact has also been discovered. 

 In the cycle of development, the Fern plant 

 itself is occasionally omitted altogether. 

 Instead of the prothaUium producing a 

 plant as in the usual course, it, as it were, 



