APOSPOEY IN FERNS. 
221 
Reprinted, hy permission, from the Linnean Society's Journal-— 
Botany, Vol. XXI. (Bead June 19th, 1884.) 
“The reproduction of the Filices hy their spores result from 
sexual action taking place upon the under surface of the prothallus 
to which the spore gives rise. So far, I believe, no development of 
the perfect prothallus has been observed without the agency of the 
spore, and the following record of such a case therefore deserves 
special notice.” 
“ Some years ago a very distinct and beautiful form of Athyrium 
Filix-foemina was found wild by Mr. Moule in North Devon, from 
whose possession it passed into that of Colonel Jones, of Clifton. 
Many attempts were made at the time to propagate it from what 
were assumed to be spores, always, however, without success ; and 
at length it was taken for granted that the peculiar growths 
produced by this fern in the place of sori were merely abortive spore- 
cases, and that the plants, like some other abnormal forms, lacked 
the special vigour necessary for the formation of perfect reproductive 
spores. All further attempts at raising it were consequently 
abandoned ; and only two divisions of the plant exist.* In the 
autumn of 1883 I discovered upon another Athyrium {A. F.-f., var. 
plumosum divaricatum) numerous proliferous bulbils occupying the 
place of sori on the back of the fronds ; and, reporting this to Mr. G. 
B. Wollaston, he was led to re-examine A. F.-f. Glarissima, as the 
fern in question had been named by Colonel Jones, and came to the 
conclusion that these so far barren excrescences might be viviparous 
growths of a kindred nature, and capable of reproducing the parent 
form by direct bud-development. A portion of a frond was conse- 
quently sent to me, and upon examining it under the microscope I 
found that there were very material structural differences between 
the unmistakable bulbils of A. F.-f. divaricatiom and the singular 
* It is, of course, open to question whether the excrescences 
formed prior to 1883 were of exactly the same nature. Colonel 
Jones inclines to the belief that they approached more nearly the 
character of sori, and did not in previous years present the same 
appearance as now described. 
