30 
Choice Ferns for Amateurs. 
not warm place, may safely be preserved until the 
spring, when it will be found that their germinative 
power has not been materially affected. 
Many ways of sowing Fern spores have been 
advocated; but the simpler the operation the better. 
A piece of turfy loam, or in some cases a piece of 
fibrous peat, or, again, a mixture of both is all that 
is required. To make sure that the material used is 
perfectly free from all impurity and from living 
organisms, it is well to sterilise it by baking or by 
gently pouring the contents of a kettleful of boiling 
water over it, and allowing it to cool and drain. When 
the sowing takes place on turfs of either peat or loam, 
these should be put in boiling water, and allowed to 
remain in it long enough to become perfectly 
saturated, after which they should be stood in an 
upright position, to drain. A still day should be 
chosen, and the spores should be scattered over them 
and not covered with soil ; they should be put under 
a bell-glass, and remain there until the growth is 
sufficiently developed for pricking off. 
If fibry loam is not procurable, it is best to 
sow in porous, shallow pans, or in pots partly filled 
with crocks covered with a layer of either fibrous 
peat or sphagnum, the rest of the pan or pot being 
filled to within half an inch of the rim with a mix- 
ture of peat, loam, silver sand, and soft brick broken 
very small; the surface may be rendered even by 
pressing it firmly with the bottom of another pot. 
This compost possesses a great advantage over all 
others, inasmuch as while spores of most species ger- 
minate on any material of a naturally moist nature, 
there are certain others that pcerminate only on 
either peat, crocks, or loam. When, therefore, it is 
not known positively which of these materials is the 
most suitable, the mixture above recommended gives 
the spores a fair chance of falling on the material 
for which they have a predilection. The soil should 
be treated with boiling water, and allowed to drain; 
for watering after the sowing, even with cold water, 
may result in the total destruction of the spores. 
The spores should be simply dropped on the surface 
