April 4, 1903. 
THE GARDENING WORLD 
293 
The Lady Fern. 
Athyrium Filix-foemina. 
(Concluded f rom page 204.) 
By Charles T. Druery, F.L.S., Y.M.H. 
To the Lady Fern also must be imputed the credit of the 
first recognised case of soral apospory in A. F.-f. clarissima, 
which it has followed up by Bolton’s form, which exhibits both 
soral and apical apospory in a very marked fashion, though, 
unfortunately, it is not such a thoroughbred as Jones’s type, 
being subject to partial reversion, while its progeny are so far 
invariably rogues. Even the splendid plant which I obtained 
by layering—a. solitary one in many scores of ragged depau¬ 
perate ones, going almost normal in the third year. Herein 
may be remarked an additional resemblance to the pulcher- 
rimum Shield Ferns, which behave in precisely the same way. 
Jones’s clarissima, however, yields typical plants, with little 
variation and never reverts. 
Subsequently, Dr. Stansfield demonstrated that apospory 
could be induced in the case of A. F.-f. uncoglomeratum, raised 
The Lady Fern is so easily raised from spores, and so soon 
shows its character by attaining adult size, that it is un¬ 
necessary for me to give any special advice as to raising it in 
that way; but as it is sometimes apt to vary so considerably 
that the absolutely true parental type is only secured by 
division, I may mention a fact not generally known with regard 
to propagation in another way, viz., from tire frond bases. In 
the Hart s^tongue, as we know, it is only necessary to pull off 
from the central caudex the fleshy stumps left by even the 
long-decayed fronds of many previous seasons, and if these 
stumps be half buried in soil, each one, or even each half, if 
they be cut in two, will, in the course of a few months, develop 
several bulbils and eventually make quite a cluster of 
youngsters. An even simpler way is to take a tumbler, put in 
am inch of silver sand, thoroughly wetted, but no surplus. Drop 
the bases loosely upon the sand and cover with a glass. Nothing 
more is needed. The bulbils will form, the young plants will 
develop fronds and aerial roots, and, this done, they can be 
removed and potted up. Incidentally, I may say that sections 
of the rhizome of P. vulgare varieties, SO' treated, act precisely 
in the same way, though less profusely. I raised a number of- 
Cymbidium hookkrianum. 
from acrocladon, and constituting another unique type in the 
fernflora of the world. Dr. Stansfield noticed that in the 
autumn, although the fronds gave way at the base and lose 
colour generally, the ramifying tips refused to die, remaining 
green, and evidently doing their best to continue growth. He 
consequently conceived the idea, of helping them by cutting 
them off and inserting them in prepared soil, with the result 
that they retained vitality and started growth the following 
season, sphagnum fashion, i.e., by feeding, as it were, on the 
decayed basal portion, finally developing bulbils with roots 
md fanning out their tops into prothalli with root-hairs, i.e., 
aposporausly. As this Fern bears no* spores, this phenomenon 
was a fortunate discovery, since, as in the original case of 
clarissima, it provided an unlooked-for means of propagation. 
Finally, we have in this species Mr. Garnett’s fimbriato- 
ristatum, a slender, graceful tasselled form of unknown par¬ 
entage, which is abundantly aposporous, precisely on the lines 
>f clarissima, which greatly resembles, plus the tassels, but 
rith which it does not seem possible to associate it, as it was 
mdoubtedly a sporeling. 
(See p. 293.) 
P. v. bifido-nrultifidum from fragments dropped into a tumbler 
as described. 
With the Lady Fern, however, though each frond base is 
equally capable of yielding several plants, the bulbils are only 
formed at one spot, and that is at the point where the fascicle 
of roots proper to each frond emerges ; and it is essential to 
success that a. small, wedge-shaped section of the central core 
of the caudex be cut out by a sharp knife, with the frond base, 
as it is this which seems to afford the needful material for a 
start. This means, of course, the taking up of the old plant; 
but if it be a very old one, it is practicable to pass a knife 
through the caudex low down and horizontally, cutting off a 
mass of material at the bottom for treatment, and yet leaving 
a good crown and mass of roots sufficient to maintain the plants 
with little or no check. In more than one instance we have 
taken up an old crown which has failed, and was, to all 
ordinary intents and purposes, dead, and yet, by merely cut¬ 
ting it up and potting the pieces, numerous plants have re¬ 
sulted. By cutting up, we mean severing perpendicularly 
through the central core, each piece then having several frond 
