CRl 'PTOGA MS— FERN HI 'B RID IS A TION. 



You will now see clearly liow it happens that fern hybrids occur now and then, 

 in nature, and even more freely in the garden where many different kinds of ferns are 

 grown in close 

 proximity to each 

 other. The spiral 

 antherozoids act 

 perfectly automati- 

 cally, so far as we 

 at present know, 

 and so they run into 

 any pore or crevice 

 of any archegonium 

 near to them, an"d 

 in this way it is 

 possible for two 

 species to be cross- 

 fertilised and for 

 fern hybrids to 

 appear. 



Fern growers 

 apply this know- 

 ledge by sowing the 

 spores of any species 

 they wish to hybri- 

 dise all together on 

 a wet soft stone, or 

 on the surface of a 

 seed-pan or flower- 

 pot. Or again, the 

 spores of many 

 species or forms are 

 all mixed and sown 

 together in the same 



receptacle, so that the chances of their being hybridised are multiplied as it wore. 



A. — Fern (Polypodium). 1, Prothallium ; 2, prothallium with first young frond ; 

 3, spore-case, bursting open and liberating spores ; 4, spore germinating ; 5, antlieridium 

 containing male spores (= micro- spores) ; 6, archegonium or female organ ; 7, cluster 

 of spore-cases on bit of frond. B. — Horsetail (Equisetuin). 1, Spore yielding scale 

 from conical head ; 2, spore with four elaters expanded ; 3, spore with elaters coiled up 

 when dry ; 4, spore germinating. G. — Fongus or Mushroom (Agaricus). 1, Sterig- 

 mata and conidia, showing two basidia (cells), four conidia (spores) on each ; the spores 

 when ripe give rise to " spawn " or mycelium. 



