On the Structure of a Hybrid Fern. 
BY 
J. BRETLAND FARMER, M.A., 
Fellow of Magdalen College , Oxford, and Professor of Botany in the 
Royal College of Science, London. 
With Plates XXIII and XXIV. 
HE Fern which forms the subject of the present 
JL communication, Polypodium Schneideri , was first raised 
at Messrs. Veitch’s, Chelsea, by Mr. Schneider several years 
ago, and he has several times succeeded in producing it 
afresh. The two parents were P. aureum , and a variety 
of P. vulgare known as eleg antis simum. The latter plant 
occurs wild in some parts of Cornwall, and it shows some 
tendency to revert, in the form of its leaves, to the common 
P. vulgare type. The spores from the varietal leaf-form 
were sown, and when mature prothallia had been secured, 
they were planted along with prothallia from P. aureum. 
This method had to be adopted on account of the very 
different rates of development of the gametophyte in the 
two species respectively, that of P. aureum being relatively 
very rapid. 
I may say that I have had a conversation on the subject 
of the Fern with Mr. Schneider himself, who kindly showed 
[Annals of Botany, Vol. XI. No. XLIV. December, 1897.3 
