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THE FERN BULLETIN 



reproductive organs — the sperm-sacs and the egg- 

 pits. It, small and obscure though it be, is a complete 

 organism in itself, producing "eggs" or "germ-cells" 

 which are duly fertilised by sperm threads. We call 

 it, in contrast to the first generation, "the egg-and- 

 sperm bearer" or the sexual generation. Each of its 

 fertilised eggs gives rise by growth and development 

 to a spore-bearer or fern. Thus, then, there is an 

 alternation of the two generations, the spore-bearing 

 big fern and the egg-and-sperm bearing marchantia- 

 like prothallus. After all, our ancestors were right in 

 thinking that something very queer and unusual un- 

 derlay the propagation of ferns ! Not the least note- 

 worthy fact in the matter is that, the male fertilising 

 element of the sexual generation of the fern is not dry, 

 dusty "pollen" as in flowering plants, but microscopic 

 aquatic "spermatozoa" like those of animals. — From 

 an article by Sir Ray Lankester. 



Distribution of Schizaea. — Once upon a time 

 the claim of the little curly grass (Schizaea pusilla) to 

 a place in the Newfoundland flora, rested upon a sheet 

 of dilapidated specimens in the Jardin des Plantes at 

 Paris. They were reputed to have been collected by 

 De la Pylaie in Newfoundland, but there was always 

 a suspicion that the specimens really had come from 

 the New Jersey region and in some way had become in- 

 correctly referred to Newfoundland, until Rev. A. L. 

 Waghorne rediscovered the species at Bay of Islands. 

 Now and then the species has been recorded from other 

 stations in both Nova Scotia and Newfoundland but 

 it remains for a party headed by M. L. Fernald of Har- 

 vard University, last summer, to discover that the fern 

 is really common for a hundred miles or more in 

 Newfoundland, growing even upon the elevated table 

 lands. From a great number of observations on this 



