249 



FERN GENERATION, NORMAL AND ABNORMAL. 



By Mr. Chakles T. Druery, F.L.S., F.R.H.S. 



[Bead August 11, 1896.] 



[This interesting lecture was profusely illustrated with lantern slides,, 

 which the lecturer most graphically described and explained as he 

 proceeded. We greatly regret not being able to reproduce these illustra- 

 tions, as the lecture is shorn of a very great part of its interest by suchj 

 disability. — Eds.] 



Although amongst the Fellows of the R.H.S. there are many 

 who take a delight in the culture of Ferns, both as amateur 

 growers and as trade producers of the millions which are annually- 

 raised for decorative purposes, there are probably few who have- 

 given the attention necessary to familiarise themselves with the- 

 very peculiar phenomena of their reproduction from the micro- 

 scopic spores which ferns so copiously produce. I may therefore- 

 be pardoned by the minority who know if, for the sake of the 

 majority who do not, I endeavour to bring before you to-day 

 some more or less clear presentment of this phase of fern life. 



In the case of flowering plants we are all familiar with the- 

 manner of the fertilisation of the seed and the subsequent pro- 

 duction of plants thereby. The pollen grains fall upon the- 

 stigma, and emit tubes which pass through its substance untii 

 they reach the embryo seeds (ovules) already formed in the seed 

 vessel. These are fertilised by contact thus effected, increase 

 in size, ripen, and are then scattered abroad in a thousand and 

 one ways to secure the perpetuation of the species. Falling upon? 

 the soil, they then under congenial conditions burst, send forth 

 a leaf or leaves into the air and a root into the soil, and are 

 fairly launched as a fresh generation. 



With ferns, however, the process is a very different one and 

 is carried on in all its initial stages on so microscopic a scale- 

 that its true nature baffled research until 1844, little more than 

 fifty years ago, when Count Suminski, following up the previous, 

 discovery by Naegeli of the antheridia, or male vessels contain- 

 ing the antherozoids or pollen equivalents, upon the under side- 

 of the minute primary leaf or prothallus formed by the spore* 

 discovered the archegonia, or ovaries, and in a most masterly 

 series of drawings demonstrated the whole normal process 



