8 
The Ferns of South Africa. 
for sowing. Prepare a pot, as if for planting, giving plenty of 
broken brick drainage, covered with moss, on the top of which a 
layer of finely sifted sandy soil is placed. The pot is then placed 
in a saucer full of water, which finds its way up into the soil, making 
it all damp and fit for a growing place for the spores. The spores 
should be gently scattered over the surface, but not covered with 
any soil, as the moisture keeps them in place, and if the saucer be 
filled up occasionally no watering over-head will be required, but 
a piece of glass should be laid over the pot so as to retain the 
moisture better. Care should be taken that spores only are sown, 
and not pieces of broken frond, or empty capsules, as these, de- 
caying, often start a mould which carries off the young plants. 
The pot may then be placed in any dark, damp corner in a green- 
house, or frame, or even behind a wall, and should never be 
allowed to get either too dry, or too wet. When the young plants 
have about two to three fronds, they should be carefully transplanted 
an inch apart in fresh pots, as the first soil will likely have become 
a little sour, and when three inches high they may be potted singly. 
Some ferns persistently refuse to grow from spores ; but whether 
this is owing to a defect in the spores, or to the want of proper con- 
ditions, still remains to be demonstrated. 
There are several other methods of propagating some ferns be- 
sides by spores, such as by buds produced on the frond, by division 
of the rhizome, and, in rare cases, by buds produced on the roots. 
Buds produced on the frond are remarkable for the regularity with 
which they occur in the same part of the frond. Thus in Asplen- 
iu?n monanthemum the bud is a few inches up the stalk, in A. erect- 
u?n it is at the tip of the frond, and in A. gemmiferum it is below 
the terminal pinnule. Some forms are seldom seen wild except 
bearing buds, and in the moist close forest this peculiarity seems 
to be even more developed than in cultivation. 
Any form having long rhizomes may, with proper care, be pro- 
pagated by division, but in several this is found to be most difficult, 
especially the Gleichenias , and the Bracken. 
Some with short rhizomes produce several side buds if the ter- 
minal bud be removed, and with some others buds are produced 
