FERN CONFERENCE. 



509 



occasionally put on this character. Miss Bellairs sent me the 

 Axminster plumose Lady Fern, having the fronds crowded with 

 young plants. 



There is yet another means of propagation which has been 

 discovered by Mr. Druery in the sterile Lady Fern known as 

 clarissima. This is in reality the formation of prothalli on the 

 frond without the medium of the spore ; when these touch the 

 ground they strike roots and produce fronds. More than twenty 

 years ago Mr. Clapham showed me anAdiantum Capillus-vencris, 

 having fronds touching the ground, producing a crop of young 

 plants, and this might have been a case of apospory. Plants, 

 however, raised by this means are also liable to sport. Colonel 

 Jones had several more or less revolved, one furcate, and another 

 not unlike Elworthy's subplumosum. 



As soon as the discovery of the reproductive organs was 

 known, it occurred to me that the character of the frond must 

 depend upon whether impregnation took place from the same 

 prothallus or from one of a different Fern. This determined me, 

 in making my first experiments, to mix the spores of two varieties 

 of the Hart's-tongue, and as another experiment two varieties of 

 the Lady Fern. The seedlings from these were convincing that a 

 cross had been obtained between the two varieties. 



The next experiment was with spores from the varieties of 

 the Lady Fern known as Victoria and protcoidcs. These seed- 

 lings showed a series of variations, having Vic tor ice at the one 

 extreme and protcoiclcs at the other. 



The third experiment was the mixing together the spores of 

 half-a-dozen varieties of the Lady Fern, and, as a further trial, 

 half-a-dozen varieties of the Hart's-tongue. This brought out a 

 new fact — there were seedlings that showed the characters of 

 three, and even four, varieties on a single frond, so that male 

 organs from several varieties had assisted in this impregnation. 

 The microscopic character of these organs was a difficulty to be 

 overcome in crossing Ferns, and the only way to overcome this 

 seemed to be sowing the Fern spores thickly together, trusting to 

 their close proximity to enable two or more varieties to be self- 

 crossed. The antheridia for male organs) having been noticed 

 to move about with activity in the moisture on the surface of the 

 prothallus, it was thought possible for them to come in contact 

 with the archegonia on another prothallus, and thus fertilisation 



