PROPAGATION. 
17 
lings have passed the early stage and attained to the 
dignity of a third frond, it is time to pot them off, and this 
is a most careful and delicate operation. When any small 
stones have been left among the mixed earth, a seedling 
fern will probably be adhering to each of such stones ; 
these are the most easy to manage, for you can readily 
lift the stone and the young fern attached to it, and 
plunge both in a tiny pot, covering with soil to the foot of 
the fronds. Other seedlings are treated similarly, but, if 
they are crowded together, there will be great difficulty 
in separating them without wounding the tender fronds. 
There is a rougher way of propagating hardy ferns by 
spores. Small pieces of sandstone or of brick are placed 
in a damp shady place ; these are moistened, sprinkled 
with spores, and placed under a hand-glass. Many good 
ferns have been raised thus. Germination takes place 
rapidly when the spores are sown in small pots and the 
pots plunged in water, bell glasses being fitted just within 
the pots. The moisture continually ascending through 
the drainage and compost, and confined by the glass, 
brings forward the development rapidly. Another me- 
thod of propagation is by buds, but this can only be 
practised in the cases of such species as are viviparous. 
Asplenium bulhiferum , a free-growing, half-hardy fern, 
familiar in our greenhouses and Wardian cases, is gene- 
rally adorned with a rising family ; sprouting buds being 
situated upon most of the fronds, and often three or four 
upon the same frond. These infant plants are easily 
transferred to a pot, and require but little care to nurse 
them into flourishing plants. There is a bulbiferous 
Cystopteris , a native of Brazil, which produces buds 
from its under surface, which are very easily removed 
and planted out. Woodwardia radicans is perhaps the 
c 
