10 
GENERAL HINTS ON I='EEN CULTURE., 
the middle, having heen gradually developed into this form through the stages represented in the preceding 
figures (Fig. 1 — 5). To see the peculiar organs, the disa-like cellular plate must be carefully laid face down- 
wards upon a slip of glass, and washed clean, gently removing the grains of soil with a camel-hair pencil from 
among the rootlets. When placed under the microscope, a number of projecting colls (Pig. 6, b) are generally 
found scattered about the frond. These are seen to he again filled with minute vesicles (Figs. 7 and 8), which 
escape by the bursting of the protruding cell, either spontaneously or by slight pressure on the glass covering 
the object (Fig. 9). As the vesicles emerge they burst also, and from them springs out a spiral thread-like 
body, thickened at one end, and furnished with cilia (Fig. 10). These, the so-called animalcules, swim about 
with great rapidity, shooting forward, and continually whirling 
round on their own axes. To see them clearly their motion must 
he stopped by adding a little solution of iodine. On the thickened 
part of the frond, near the notch, are to be 
found in most cases, not always, cellular struc- 
tures of larger size, and more complicated (Fig. 
6, a). They consist of conical papillae, with cel- 
lular walls, containing a cavity in the centre 
(Fig. 11-12.) _ J.T 
“ Now, the statements of Sumiuski 
are to the effect that these last bodies ‘ 
represent ovules, and that a 
little cell exists at the bottom of the cavity (Fig. 13), which becomes 
fertilized by the entrance of one of the spiral bodies, in a manner 
supposed to have some analogy to the entrance of the pollen-tuhe into 
the ovules of flowering plants. My own observations have not afforded 
me a view of any process of this kind ; and elaborate investigations 
have been made since the publication of Suminski’s paper by two skilful 
German anatomists. Dr. Wigand and M. Schacht, with a view to con- 
firm or refute his assertions, so important in a physiological point of 
view. They both agree in stating that very extensive research has failed to reveal anything like an entrance 
of the spiral bodies into the so-called ovules ; and M. Schacht further avers, that in the young stages of the 
‘ovules,’ at which stage Suminski states the fertilization takes place, the cavity is closed up.” 
12. Side view of an “ ovule.” 
13. The summit of the same, seen from above. 
13. Side view of an “ovule” from Suminski, 
representing the embryo-cell at the bottom of 
the cavity. 
1-1, 15, 16. Germinating Ferns [Pfei'is 
serrulata), with the young leaves spring- 
ing up from the germinal frond. 
The evidence is so far against Count Suminski’s views, though the probabilities are in favour of 
them ; and, at all events, the import of the remarkable structures remains to be cleared up. The first 
leaf emerges from the substance of the cellular thickening of the germinal frond, which is carried up 
a little way in a kind of sheath. The “ ovule,” or several, may often be seen attached to the side of 
this sheathing process of tissue. It is the opinion of Count Suminski that the first leaf is developed 
from the minute cell vrhich, he says, lies at the bottom of the “ovule,” just as the embryo is in the 
embryo sac of a phanerogamous ovule; but, if this were the case, there would be the striking 
difference that the embryo bursts through the coats of the ovule at the side, the radical extremity not 
pointing to the canal where the fertilizing influence enters, as in the flowering plants. The second leaf 
of the young plants is developed in the axil of the first, and so on, the little Marchantia-like germinal 
frond soon decaying away. 
The spores germinate whenever they fall on a surface constantly damp, such as the surface of the 
soil, a damp wall, or the damp exterior of a flower-pot. Self-sown plants spring up by thousands in 
houses where collections of Ferns are kept. When the object is to raise any particular kind, or to 
obtain living plants of new species from the spores derived from herbarium specimens, a very con- 
venient plan is to fill a pot or pan with soil rather more loamy and sandy than that employed for 
potting, the pan being well drained. After giving the surface a good watering, scatter the spores 
evenly over the surface, and set the pan under a close glass and in a close frame, avoiding watering if 
possible until they have germinated. When the second and third fronds are produced they can be 
handled, and should be transplanted into nursery pots, or otherwise as may be convenient. After 
they have reached this stage, their progress is rapid. 
Another method of raising Ferns from the spores, much more exact in its results, has been described 
by Mr. Deane, of Clapham, in the following interesting letter * addressed to Mr. Ward 
* Ward On the Growth of Plants in Closehj-gla:ied Cases. London : Van Voorst. 
