Reproductio7i and Propagatio?i. 
7 
REPRODUCTION AND PROPAGATION. 
THE spore is the natural reproductive organ of the fern, and its 
method of development is most curious and interesting, though 
difficult to examine on account of its small size. When released 
by the bursting of the capsule, it floats in the air until some damp 
spot is reached, when growth at once commences, and in two 
weeks the small green growth may be detected without the mag- 
nifying glass, and, if given suitable conditions, it continues to grow 
on till about half-an-inch long and wide, by which time it will 
have assumed the two-lobed shape shown in the young plant of 
Pteris cretica, figured. 
At that stage it is termed the protliallus , and looks like a green 
lichen or liverwort, attached by minute hair-like roots to the 
ground. Its growth then ceases, but, if very carefully examined 
under a powerful microscope, a few small tubercles may be seen 
on the under side, just below the notch, and those who make 
this a special study will find that male and female organs are 
there produced, and that sexual fertilizatioti is accomplished by 
them. 
Instead of this resulting in seed, as happens among the flower- 
ing plants after fertilization, the product in this case is a young 
plant, which, growing like a bud out of the fertilized prothallus, 
soon produces fronds, then roots, and in a few weeks is fit 
to provide for itself, when the now useless prothallus gradu- 
ally withers off. It is by this means that all seedling ferns found 
in the forests or raised in the nurseries are obtained, and oc- 
casionally they come up unexpectedly in the greenhouse of the 
amateur. 
To obtain the spores artificially, dry some half-ripened fronds 
in paper for a few days, then crush and sift, keeping the fine dust 
