104 
APPENDIX. 
protean nature of the family itself, is a singular fact. The dis- 
covery, however, of numerous proliferous buds which appeared 
upon some very small plants which 1 exhibited here in 1882 led 
me to institute further enquiries into this subject. 1 then ascer- 
tained that Mr. Mapplebeck had already observed the same 
phenomenon, and raised plants from similar bulbils, which 
appeared identical in position and character with those of the 
Asplenia. Last year, as already remarked, 1 found another a'nd 
very distinct form of proliferation on a mature plant of A. f. f. 
plumosum divaricatum, upon which numerous bulbils were 
evolved in the place of the sori, this, be it observed, being on the 
under side of the pinn®, a most unlikely place for such growths. 
This same transformation of the reproductive energy had already 
been observed on three other kindred forms of Athyrium, upon 
one of which the bulbils and sori were scattered almost indis- 
criminately over the back of the fronds, some of the sori seeming 
to be in an intermediate amorphous condition ; though in all other 
cases, so far as 1 could see, the sori and bulbils were distinctly 
differentiated by the presence, in the former case of an indusium, 
and in the latter of lanceolate scales arranged shuttlecock fashio.. 
around the bulbil, no trace of indusium existing. Such bulbils 
had, until this season, failed invariably to yield plants, and 
seemed incapable of forming a proper axis of growth. Mr. G. 
B. Wollaston has, however, succeeded in obtaining plants this 
spring from A. f. f. plumosum elegans, and one or two of those 
from A. f. f. plumosum divaricatum have developed fresh fronds 
with me. 
From this it will be seen that no less than three distinct 
forms of proliferation have now been observed on the Athyria : 
1. Bulbils of the ordinary character, developed in thi axils 
and on the superior surface of the pinnae, and agreeing in 
character with the ordinary bulbils of the Asplenia. 
2. Bulbils formed apparently by transmuted spore-producing 
energy, and occupying the place of sori, i.e., on the under side of 
the pinnae — a position so far, 1 believe, quite unrecorded in 
connection with any of the Filices. 
3. A new form of proliferation altogether, viz., proliferous 
prothalli arising from pseudo-bulbils produced by a different 
transmutation of the reproductive force, and evolving plants 
only after the pro: halli have produced the usual sexual organs 
common to prothalli resulting from spores. 
