220 
APOSPORY IN FERNS. 
plumosum, the parent of F.-f. plumosum elegans ; but that, until 
the autumn of 1883, their true character as bulbils had not been 
established, as repeated attempts had failed to do more than 
induce the formation of one or two fronds without roots or any 
apparent independent axis of growth, the said fronds dying as 
the parent frond lost its vitality during the winter. Mr. Moore, 
in his “ Nature Printed Ferns,” apparently makes the only 
allusion to this pseudo-proliferous phenomenon, as he speaks of 
the occasional transformation of sporangia into little bunches of 
leaves, which exactly describes the case as it stood anterior 
to 1883. 
With regard to A. F.-f. plumosum elegans, there is a special 
interest attaching to the fact which I observed, that not only 
does it bear bulbils proper and sori proper inte'rmingled, but also 
intermediate transitional stages, which I am very sanguine will 
throw some altogether new light upon the transformation of the 
sori into bulbils and the indusia into scales. With this view I 
have provided Prof. F. O. Bower, of whom more anon, with a 
portion of a frond bearing ample material for the elucidation of 
this problem. Prof. Bower has kindly undertaken to investigate 
this point by means of microscopic sections, &c., and a report 
thereon will, I hope, appear in the course of the year. 
The next discovery, to which the foregoing ones led, was 
that of the singular and altogether different phenomena pre- 
sented by A. F.f. Clarissima, with regard to which I cannot, I 
think, do better than repeat to you verbatim the reports which I 
laid before the Linnean Society, in 1883 and 1884, and the 
confirmatory observations of Prof. F. O. Bower, of the Joddrell 
Laboratory, who received from Professor Thiselton Dyer the 
material which I sent him with a view to that minute and 
thorough investigation which only professional skill of a very 
high order is able to conduct. 
