Notes . 
169 
view. The first of these were made at Peradeniya, Ceylon* in 1885, 
and were continued for about two months : pieces of the fronds of 
Polypodium aureum , Adiantum peruvianum , Angiopteris evecta , and 
Aneimia , sp. were selected, with immature sori, and laid on damp 
soil ; but they simply rotted, without any further development. From 
October, 1888, similar experiments have been made for me by 
Mr. Sherry in the Glasgow Botanic Garden, the subjects being selected 
from over twenty genera, and forty-six species and varieties : portions of 
fronds of various ages were laid, for periods up to six months, on and 
among Sphagnum , which was kept constantly moist, and at an 
equable temperature. The results have been, that in no single case 
has any outgrowth of an oophytic nature been observed, except such 
as could be traced in origin to spores which had not escaped from the 
sporangia. 
It is well, I think, to record these unsuccessful attempts, partly 
because it may suggest to others to make similar experiments under 
different conditions, but chiefly because they point to this conclusion, 
that there is a marked disability on the part of Ferns to bridge over 
the limits of the two generations by other means than by the formation 
of spores: the phenomenon of apospory is then by no means a 
promiscuous one, occurring readily and often, but a rare process, 
which seems to appear spontaneously, under conditions not yet 
understood, and is not readily induced. These observations decidedly 
enhance the importance of those examples of aposporous growths 
which have hitherto been recorded. 
F. O. BOWER, Glasgow. 
A LILY DISEASE IN BERMUDA. — For several years a 
disease has been prevalent in the lily fields of Bermuda, and has 
seriously damaged the crop, which is there quite an important one. 
During the past two winters I have devoted a good deal of my time 
to the study of this disease, and by means of a long series of experi- 
ments, both in the fields and in the laboratory, I have been able to 
prove that a fungus growing upon the leaves and flowers of the plants 
is the cause of all the trouble. This fungus is similar in all points to 
that described by Professor Marshall Ward in a recent number of this 
journal 1 as having caused a Lily disease in England, and from a 
specimen sent to him he has identified it as the same. 
1 A Lily-disease, by H. Marshall Ward, Annals of Botany, vol. ii, No. xii, 
November 1888. 
