22 
Choice Ferns for Amateurs. 
growths. Thirdly, there are Ferns whose fronds 
bear a solitary bulbil on or in the near vicinity of 
their extremity, or whose tailed appendage is formed 
by the production of a young plant partaking of the 
same character as its parent. Lastly, we have 
individuals the base of whose stalks are provided 
with either trailing stems (stolons), roots, or scales of 
a proliferous nature, each of these bearing one or 
more latent buds or bulbils that, given certain 
favourable conditions, never fail to reproduce the 
parent. Necessarily this is but an extremely brief 
survey of a group of Ferns exhibiting some 
singular characters, but it w411 probably suffice for 
the beginner, and serve to put him on the right road 
to success. 
Life = History. 
In order the better to understand the propaga- 
tion of Ferns by the natural method of spores, 
it will be well first, briefly, to discuss the somewhat 
remarkable life-history of the plants. Already 
we have stated that Ferns belong to the 
class known as Cryptogams, in contradistinction to 
the Phanerogams, or Flowering Plants. In a 
Flowering Plant that produces seed the young plant 
generally speaking already exists, and all that is 
necessary to reproduce its kind is for the seed as it 
separates from the mother-plant to fall on congenial 
soil. With the Fern there is the same separation 
from the parent in the case of the spore-producing 
kinds, but the first growth is a very different one 
from that of the type. The fact is. Ferns belong to 
what are called prothallus-producing plants. In 
common, therefore, with the Horsetails, the Club- 
mosses, or Pillworts the first growth from the spore 
is a body, the product not of sexual reproduction, 
but of vegetative growth, and known as a prothal- 
lium, or prothallus. In appearance this body 
casually looked at, reminds one strongly of a common 
Liverwort. A more careful examination reveals a 
flattened, green, expanded body, like Fig. 16, show- 
ing an affinity for damp places, especially where 
