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A piece of a frond was consequently sent to the writer for 

 his opinion, on the supposition that the growths were 

 bulbils such as had been observed on several other 

 Athyria. From their peculiar structure, however, he 

 conceived the idea that they were something quite new 

 in the reproductive line, and without going here into 

 details which have been repeatedly published, he eventually 

 not only raised some hundreds of plants of the Clarissima 

 type, but through the further material these afforded for 

 deeper scientific research, so far enabled their true 

 character to be studied as transformations of spore 

 producing energy as to establish the existence of a 

 hitherto undreamt-of form of reproduction in the Fern 

 world. Clarissima consequently enlisted the labours of a 

 considerable number of eminent plant biologists, who 

 eventually demonstrated the occurrence of the phenomenon 

 of " apospory " in this and a number of other species (i.e. 

 the production of young plants without the intervention of 

 the spore), the writer himself adding no less than four of 

 our native species to the list of aposporous ones, and in 

 some cases in several varieties of each. Lady Clarissima 

 has thus had undoubtedly the honour of first exhibiting 

 this phenomenon in a recognisable form to human eyes, 

 and thus indirectly rewarding her chivalrous rescuer, 

 Col. Jones, for her salvation fifteen years before by 

 proof of great scientific value as well as beauty, while 

 at the same time recompensing both him and the writer, 

 plus Fern lovers generally, by a brood of some hundreds 

 of characteristic youngsters. These, however, though 

 inheriting the maternal charm of slender tenuity of 

 make, lack that of thoroughly even growth, the fronds 

 almost invariably assuming more or less of a twist, and 

 thus detracting from the natural grace of the species. 

 The original, however, forms perfectly straight and even 

 fronds, and these moreover assume a much larger size 



