FERN CITLTtrRE AND PROPAGATION. 
31 
Propagation. 
Under careful culture and congenial conditions, tlie large 
majority of tlie best varieties will soon multiply themselves 
to a certain extent by the formation of adventitious crowns, 
produced either in a small form from buds at the base of 
the fronds, or by a process of fission in the crowns them- 
selves, by which full-sized plants are obtainable. To profit 
by this latter process, it is necessary to permit the double 
crown to develop distinctly into two centres of growth ; 
which stage attained, the plant should be taken up, and a 
sharp knife passed carefully between the two centres, each of 
which will then be found to possess its own set of roots and 
fronds, and to be, indeed, a perfect plant, only needing inde- 
pendent potting or planting to form at once a fair specimen. 
The intermingling of the fronds, when the crowns are per- 
mitted to multiply without separation, often detracts from 
the grace of the plant, and hence, for this reason alone, 
separation from time to time is advisable. Such Ferns as 
are apt to form bushes, not by this process of fission, 
but by side buds — the crested Male Fern, for instance — 
are greatly benefited by the removal of these small plants 
immediately they appear, the result being a much more 
vigorous and symmetrical growth of the parent crown, whose 
roots have thus freer scope, and all of whose energies are 
concentrated in its own development. Under this treat- 
ment, the Fern named forms, in a year or two, a decided 
trunk, and becomes a veritable Tree Fern, which it will not 
do otherwise. 
The little plants produced from buds are best detached by 
passing a blunt ivory or bone knife between them and the 
parent, when they will come away with a little bunch of roots 
all ready for installation as future representatives of the 
race. These should be pricked out an inch or so apart, accord- 
ing to size, round the edges of small pots or pans filled with 
rather more sandy compost than that already indicated. If 
then put into some damp, shady corner, they will soon develop 
into pretty plants. 
