FERTILISATION AND PROPAGATION. 



127 



Gymnog'ramme calomelanos chryso- 

 phylla grandiceps.* 



c. c. Laucheana.* 



c. c. L. gigantea.* 



c. c. Massonii.* 



c. c. Parsonsii.* 



c. decomposita.* 



Pearcei robusta.* 



pulchella Wettenhalliana.* 



schizophylla gioriosa.* 

 Lomaria gibba Bellii. 



g. platyptera. 

 Nephrodium molle corymb if erum. 



patens cristatum. 



setigerum (tenericaule) cristafcum. 

 Nephrolepis Bausei. 



cordifolia compacta. 

 Pteris cretica Mayii. 



Pteris cretica nobilis. 

 Ouvrardi. 

 serrulata cristata. 

 s. c. Applebyana. 

 s. c. compacta. 

 s. c. Dixonii. 

 s. c. lacerata. 

 s. c. major, 

 s. c. polydactyla. 

 s. Leyii. 



tremula flaccida. 

 t. foliosa. 

 t. grandiceps. 

 Todea grandipinnula. 

 intermedia, 

 plnmosa. 



Woodwardia radicans Burgesiana. 

 r. cristata. 



Propagation by spores is not always the quickest means employed for the 

 reproduction of certain species. Filmy Ferns, for instance, are exceedingly 

 slow in producing their first fronds, and Hymenophyllum demissum nitens and 

 H. pulcherrimum have been known to remain five years in the prothallus state ; 

 from a small batch of spores of the Killarney Fern {Trichomanes radicans), sown 

 in 1877, the results, in 1885, were only small plants, which, however, have grown 

 rapidly since that date, their rhizomes starting and extending in all directions. 

 Trichomanes and Hymenophyllums, therefore, must not be included amongst 

 Ferns which are best propagated by spores : on the contrary, they increase 

 more rapidly by means of division. Todeas, however, which belong to the 

 same class, can only be propagated by spores. The stock of these lovely 

 plants was only kept up by frequent importations until a comparatively recent 

 date, when seedlings were freely raised by some of our leading nurserymen ; 

 but even in this instance the seedlings required several years of careful and 

 constant nursing. Several striking varieties have also been produced among 

 these ; notably Todea plumosa and T. grandipinnula, both of which originated 

 in Messrs. James Veitch and Sons' establishment. In their cases, as in those 

 of many other garden hybrids, it is difficult indeed to trace the parentage, for 

 these two varieties, as also some half-a-dozen less distinct in character, appeared 

 amongst a batch of seedlings of T. superba. The most extraordinary fact in 



