128 



THE BOOK OF CHOICE FERNS. 



connection with these productions is the case of T. grandipinnula, which, 

 though a Todea through the disposition of its spores and by the nature of 

 its crown, has fronds greatly resembling those of a much-enlarged Trichomanes 

 radicans. Another strange circumstance in connection with that extremely 

 beautiful and most translucid of all known Todeas is that, soon after young 

 plants of it had been sent out and distributed in Europe, several short, but 

 evidently old, stems of a species in all respects similar to it were imported from 

 Australia, under the name of T. Moorei. It is really impossible to account for 

 such a freak of nature, the more so when we consider that, instead of a single 

 subject being produced at the outset, a sufficient quantity of seedlings of 

 T. grandipinnula were found at once to enable the raisers to put it in commerce. 



If any further reasons in support of the practice of propagating Ferns 

 from spores were required, no more conclusive proof of its excellence could be 

 found than the fact that all our market growers raise them in that way. 

 Their mode of procedure, however, is of the simplest description, and differs 

 essentially from the one recommended above. This comes from the fact that 

 the market grower's aim is not the formation of a collection, but simply the 

 cultivation of showy sorts of rapid growth. He accordingly limits his culture 

 to a few genera, such as Adiantum, Pteris, Nephrodium, Aspidium, and Poly- 

 podium, and even of these he only grows the most vigorous ; but this he does 

 to perfection, and in an incredibly short time. His modus operandi is as 

 follows : The spores of the different species, when ripe, are collected and sown 

 broadcast on the surface of pots containing plants of slower growth, such as 

 Palms, wdiich, not often requiring fresh potting, gives the spores a fair chance 

 of germinating and even of producing young plants. The latter are "pricked 

 off" either in boxes or in pans ; thence, when they have made five or six 

 fronds, they are taken and potted at once into 2|in. pots. In these pots, 

 hundreds of thousands of Ferns are disposed of annually for the ornamentation 

 of the dinner-table or of dwelling-rooms ; for such purposes more Ferns 

 are grown in this country than any other kind of plants, and all of them are 

 raised from spores. This mode of reproduction is also frequently resorted to 

 for covering naturally damp, bare stone or brick walls, on which the spores 

 of certain species germinate promptly, and the plants grow apace for a long- 

 time without any other nourishment than moisture, and what little vegetable 

 mould is naturally produced by the decaying of their lower fronds. 



