























BRITISH FERNS 
off, and the base well washed. АП that is necessary to do now is 
to put a couple of inches of well-washed silver sand into the bottom 
of a glass jar; just moisten this sand, drop the bases evenly over 
the surface, cover close with a glass slip, and stand in a well-lighted 
but shady corner of a room, conservatory, or elsewhere. In a few 
weeks in the growing season, or if a little warmth be afforded, 
little white pimples will appear on every piece, and in time each 
pimple will become a plant, only needing to bring on in the usual 
way to become a specimen. By actual count we have found thirty- 
six such plants on one inch-long base. In this species the finest 
forms, i.e. the Crispum, or frilled ones, bear no spores at all, and 
hence this faculty of basal propagation is particularly welcome 
in their case, though applicable to ай. With regard to the non- 
crown-forming Ferns, that is, those which have creeping rootstocks, 
like the various Polypodiums, Cystopteris montana, Lastrea thelyp- 
12715, and also the common Bracken Pieris aquilina, all, with 
the exception of the last, can be multiplied independently of their 
spores by severing portions of their travelling rootstocks, taking 
care to secure a frond or two and growing tips provided with roots. 
These, inserted in open leafy soil, will soon take hold and afford 
specimens in time. Pieris aquilina roots so deeply, and has such 
brittle rootstocks, that it is practically impossible to multiply it 
in the same way, the only method being to dig out, in the winter, 
a large, solid mass of soil containing its dormant roots, and transfer 
this en masse, on the then probable chance of survival. Incidentally 
we may remark that Р. aguilina has afforded some very fine varieties 
which render these hints of value. 
SPORE PROPAGATION 
Having considered the non-sexual methods and opportunities 
for propagation of which Ferns permit, we may now turn to those 
connected with Nature's primary reproductive material, viz. the 
spores. In our chapter on the Life History of Ferns we have shown 
how such reproduction is brought about, and a consideration of 
that will help in the comprehension of what follows. The spores of 
Ferns are borne usually upon the frond backs, but are sometimes 
borne on modified fronds, or parts of fronds, devoted to spores alone. 
This we may see in the frond tips of the Royal Fern Osmunda regalis, 
the so-called Flowering Fern, because the spore clusters bear a faint 
resemblance to somewhat withered Spiræa blooms, in the little 
Ferns, Ophioglossum vulgatum and Botrychium lunaria, and as a 
sort of intermediate grade in the contracted fertile fronds of the 
Hard Fern, Blechnum spicant, and the Parsley Fern, Allosorus crispus. 
In the other species they are seen to be arranged in dots, lines, or 
marginal patches, and it is according to these arrangements that 
Fern genera are classified, since they are found to constitute the 

