Directions for raising Ferns from Seed. 33i) 



and half should be filled with brown loamy earth sifted 

 through a hair-sieve, the surface being made perfectly 

 smooth, and on this, the seeds are to be scattered, as evenly 

 as possible. Care must be taken that the wind be not suf- 

 fered to blow the seeds away, leaving nothing but empty 

 capsules. The seeds being sown, no other covering is requi- 

 site than a bell-glass, which should just fit within the rim of 

 the pot, so as to exclude all air. The pot is then to be kept 

 in a pan always half full of water, and set in a shady part 

 of the stove or hot-house, being always regularly watered, as 

 above directed. When the young plants have acquired their 

 second leaf, it is proper to give them a little air by placing a 

 small piece of wood under the edge of the glass, at one side. 

 Tn a short time afterwards the glass may be entirely re- 

 moved." 



The vegetation of Ferns appears to be less tardy than Bo- 

 tanists have supposed. Specimens of Hemionitis dealbatu* 

 having been brought from Jamaica to Liverpool, on the tenth 

 of July 1817, a few seeds were brushed off them and sown 

 immediately. Several plants thus obtained, perfected seeds 

 by the fifth of August 1818, which being committed to 

 the earth, had produced young plants covering the surface 

 like a fine moss, by the eighth of September following. Spe- 

 cimens ofPteris Cretica, and another marked Pteris acrosti- 

 choides, from William Jackson Hooker, Esq. afforded 

 seeds which have vegetated and produced very fine plants of 

 both species. Dr. William Carey sent from Serampore 

 specimens of Polypodium giganteum, and what appears to be 

 * Willdenow Species Plantarum, Vol. v. page 131, 



