69 
The Art of Multiplying Ferns . 
First secure some large shallow pans, and bell-glasses 
to fit them. Of course common flower-pots will answer 
the purpose, but large shallow pans are better. Nearly 
fill the pans (or pots) with broken flower-pots, the top 
stratum of which should be broken to the size of peas. 
Sweep all the dust made in breaking the pots into the 
pans with the smallest of the crocks, and then put in 
an inch depth of a mixture of equal parts fine peat 
and silver sand. Water with a fine rose, and if the 
watering washes the fine stuff down, and causes the 
points of the small broken pots to peep through, all the 
better—that is as it should be. Now take a ripe frond 
of a fern on which there is plenty of fruit, and while 
holding over the prepared pan, sweep the hand over it, 
or tap it smartly, and you will see the fine dust—the 
veritable fern seeds—fall freely. Regulate your move¬ 
ments so as to scatter the dust all over the surface, and 
then put *on the bell-glass. 
The proper place for pans so prepared is wherever 
they can be kept warm and dark, and yet be within 
sight, so that they are not neglected. They must be 
kept always moderately moist, but never wet, and as 
watering with a water-pot would simply wash the seed 
away, follow the neater practice of placing the pans in 
vessels of water. If they are immersed in one inch 
depth for an hour, the whole mass will become moist 
throughout by capillary attraction, and not a grain of 
sand or seed need be moved from its place. 
Have patience, and you will see first a film of green 
confervse, which is a good sign, next little leafy growths, 
resembling the liver worts or marchantias. By-and-bye 
