ЕЕКК PROPAGATION АКО CULTURE 25 
most definite character, and Ше one best fitted to that end. Since, 
however, the description of each species we deal with will embody 
this, we may dismiss the subject here. One very remarkable fact 
in connection with these spores is their enormous numbers; on 
а fair-sized Fern, a Lady Fern, the annual crop may be by actual 
computation over one thousand millions, and even in the smaller 
species hundreds of thousands are concerned. We mention these 
figures because in spore sowing there is a valuable lesson to be 
drawn from them, and that is the absurdity of the amateur sowing, 
as he is apt to do, too thickly. To collect the spores is easy ; the 
best time to sow is as soon as they are ripe, say in June or July. 
Ripeness is indicated by a deep brown or almost black colour in 
most species, but in Osmunda they are a dark olive-green, and in 
Polypodium vulgare a bright orange-yellow. If a small portion of 
a frond be detached and laid in a dry room on glazed paper or, as 
we prefer, on a glass slip which enables examination under a low- 
power microscope, in a few hours the spore pods (sporangia, Fig. 2) 
burst, and the spores may be collectively seen as a fine powder, 
and under the lens aforesaid will be distinguished as more or less 
definitely oval bodies, bearing in some species small ridges or 
projections. These bodies will probably cover the field of view, 
and will be mingled with the remains of the exploded capsules. 
Slightly breathing on the glass, immediately followed by a smart 
puff, will eliminate most of this debris, and leave the spores adhering 
to the glass, and clear of rubbish. Obviously, with plants which 
produce spores by the million, such spores must be terribly handi- 
capped somehow, or the world would be overrun by them, and in this 
case the handicap is the minuteness and delicacy of the initial 
reproductive operations. Worms, insects, fungi, mosses, heavy 
rain, etc., etc., are all liable to upset them, and some of these 
adverse factors will do the same with our cultures unless we forestall 
them. Our own plan is, therefore, this. We take a small pot ог. 
pan, put in the usual crocks for drainage, and fill it nearly full of 
good fern compost, loam, leaf mould, and coarse silver sand 
(2, 2, т); we press this flat and sprinkle some crumbs of loam or 
crushed flower pot over the surface, on which we then place a piece 
of paper to prevent disturbance, and thoroughly saturate the 
soil with boiling water until the pan is too hot to hold. АП inimical 
worms, germs, or spores are thus killed, and hence, when the 
soil is cold, and the spores scattered very thinly and evenly over 
the surface, they have a fair field, and we may fully expect that 
all will develop. We finally cover the pot or pan with a glass slip, 
stand it in a saucer in a well-lighted place, but out of sunshine, 
until in time, a few weeks, the green scales described elsewhere cover 
the soil. No watering overhead should be afforded, a little kept 
in the saucer will suffice. If not too thickly sown, a month or so 
more will show the tiny fronds emerging to the.light, and the crop 

