— 105— 



not so thin and fragile as on the coast, and the indusium is 

 persistent and strong. The sori are not so numerous, only the 

 upper third of the pinnae being fertile. 



Polyp odium hesperinum is found on the face of rocky bluffs 

 (volcanic) along the Columbia river near Multnomah Falls, in 

 company with Woodsia scopulina and Cryptogamma acrostichoides 

 growing at the foot of the bluff. Asplenium trichomanes was 

 found on Hicklin Bluff, near Troutdale, Oregon, at the mouth 

 of Big Sandy. 



Hamilton, Wash. 



BABYHOOD OF FERNS. 



By W. C. Dukes. 



Many fern-lovers who have grown ferns for years are 

 unacquainted with the manner in which they reproduce them- 

 selves. While these delicate plants have adopted a most com- 

 plicated mode of reproducing themselves, nevertheless they adhere 

 to nature's universal law of the union of the sexes. The little 

 brown purses we find upon the reverse side, and along the 

 margins of the fronds, in many different shapes, are the earnest 

 of coming generations, and these little eccentric vessels, 

 instead of following the set rule of seeds and directly 

 reproducing themselves, prefer to develop a flat, green, 

 scale-like organ known as the prothallus. When the 

 spores first germinate they have a mossy look which the 

 uninitiated might mistake for some of the musci, but they soon 

 assume the characteristic shape of the prothallus, and it is during 

 this stage that one's interest is stimulated watching their develop- 

 ment. In four or five weeks, under favorable conditions, the 

 young sporophyte will be seen springing from the axis of the 

 lobed prothallus and should then be transferred into small pots 

 as soon as their individuality is assured. 



The writer has found a successful way of handling the 

 spores, is a Warden case, in which are glass finger bowls half 

 filled with water, in which the pots are set ; the earth used was 

 a sandy mould from the woods, first subjected to two applications 

 of boiling water in order to destroy such animalculae as would 

 prove harmful to the spores or prothallus. A small quantity of 

 bone dust and slacked lime added has been found beneficial. 



