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JOURNAL OF THE ROYAL HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 



would take place on a different plant ; and this lias been accom- 

 plished. 



The above idea was considerably strengthened more recently 

 from the remarks of my friend Dr. Hudson, a great authority 

 on microscopic animal life. He showed that it required a crowd 

 of male organs to effect impregnation amongst microscopic ani- 

 mals ; and to test this with Ferns further experiments were made 

 — i.e. sowing together in equal quantities spores from a crested and 

 a normal form of Nephrodium paleacemn-- in order to ascertain the 

 proportion of crested to non-crested seedlings. These plants are 

 young, and therefore have not as yet their distinctive characters ; 

 nevertheless there is not a single plant that is not crested more 

 or less. However, I had in reality proved this previously when 

 spores from four varieties sown together produced seedlings 

 having all their characters on one frond. 



A further experiment with the Hart's-tongue is also of 

 peculiar interest. An undulate form, a spiral form, a rugose 

 form, and a tasseiled form were sown together, and amongst 

 the seedlings there are plants that exhibit all these charac- 

 teristics. 



Ferns that I am now sowing spores from have a long pedi- 

 gree. Some date back more than thirty years, at least a dozen 

 generations, and the seedlings from these plants are all abnormal. 

 Over and over again I have had batches of seedlings without 

 producing a single common normal form. It is quite true that 

 these may degenerate under adverse circumstances to the original 

 form, and keep normal under those conditions. Nevertheless a 

 more generous treatment and a more suitable situation will, in 

 the course of time, restore them to their original varietal cha- 

 racters. As early as 1844 I divided Polypodium cambricitm 

 and Scolopendrium crispum, growing the one half in large flower- 

 pots and planting out the other halves in exposed situations in 

 a soil mainly composed of New Red Sandstone. In the course of 

 a few years both these had returned to the normal state, yet 

 divisions taken from them in time again became true cambricum 

 and crispum. This was also well seen in the Scolopendriums that 

 I moved from Nottinghamshire to Shirenewton Hall in 1881. They 

 were planted in an unsuitable situation, and although there were 

 nearly five hundred distinct varieties, in three or four years they 

 were all common Hart's-tongues. In 1886 and 1887 they were 



