ЕЕВМ PROPAGATION AND CULTURE 28 
bulbils appear freely on the edges of the conglomerate, or infinitely 
branched fronds, and in a recent find by the writer at Torquay the 
crested fronds are viviparous, quite on Polystichum lines, at the 
juncture of the stalk with the frond proper, and even in the angles 
of the ramose divisions. Such bulbils easily lend themselves 
for propagation, if severed with a small piece of frond, layered, 
and kept close. 
In all these cases the bulbils are obvious to the naked eye ; 
but it has been found that where none actually exist, nor indeed 
would exist, without artificial treatment, they can be induced to 
form, and often do so very freely. The caudices, or rootstocks, 
of many Ferns are built up of the persistent bases of old and long 
dead fronds, dead, that is, so far as their leafy portion and most of 
their stalks are concerned, but at the very bottom there is an inch or 
two of fleshy base which retains vitality for years, and it has been 
found that when the central growing part of the fern is damaged or 
destroyed the innate vitality of the remainder is apt to find vent 
by the formation of buds, which in time restore the plants. Under 
natural conditions, however, where central growth has stopped 
owing to the lengthening caudex having grown so far out of the 
soil as to be impoverished by drought and over-exposure, the 
still living portion we have described is buried in dead and rotting 
matter, and as the first essential of such incipient bulbil growth is 
access to light for their fronds, and to fresh soil for their rootlets, 
artificial treatment is alone likely to afford them the needful chance. 
This treatment consists in digging up the old caudex and removing 
with a sharp knife all the dead matter, roots and all, until the 
still green or sappy vital part is reached. This is then well washed 
and potted up in good compost in as small a pot as possible. If then 
kept close under a tumbler, in a few weeks bulbils are almost sure 
to appear as little white excrescences, and possibly a very valuable 
plant is not only saved, but freely multiplied. In our own experience 
with one of the oldest and finest collections of British Fern varieties 
in the country, the great bulk of which had apparently joined the 
majority, the plants were removed and thus drastically treated, 
with the result that not only was there hardly a failure whenever 
a spark of life was left, but many precious original wild finds, 
instead of being solitary specimens, may now be reckoned by the 
dozen or more. The common Hartstongue (Scolopendrium vulgare) 
affords a perhaps still more remarkable instance of this innate 
vitality. The old caudex, as already described, consists of old 
persistent bases, many scores of which can be pulled off if a plant 
be unearthed and the pulling off process commenced at the 
bottom. These bases are hard, dark green, sausage-shaped, and 
vary from half an inch to an inch in length, according to the robust- 
ness of the plant concerned. The larger ones can be cut across into 
two. Each will bear a little bundle of roots, which should be cut 


