[Illustration: 1, PAN; 2, BELL GLASS; 3, SMALL POTS AND LABELS.]
This plan, of which I give a sketch, has been in use by myself for many
years, and most successfully. I have at various times given it to growers,
but still I hear of difficulties. Procure a good sized bell-glass and an
earthenware pan without any holes for drainage. Prepare a number of small
pots, all filled for sowing, place them inside the pan, and fit the glass
over them, so that it takes all in easily. Take these filled small pots out
of the pan, place them on the ground, and well water them with boiling
water to destroy all animal and vegetable life, and allow them to get
perfectly cold; use a fine rose. Then taking each small pot separately, sow
the spores on the surface and label them; do this with the whole number,
and then place them in the pan under the bell-glass. This had better be
done in a room, so that nothing foreign can grow inside. Having arranged
the pots and placed the glass over them, and which should fit down upon the
pan with ease, take a clean sponge, and tearing it up pack the pieces round
the outside of the glass, and touching the inner side of the pan all round.
Water this with cold water, so that the sponge is saturated. Do this
whenever required, and always use water that has been boiled. At the end of
six weeks or so the prothallus will perhaps appear, certainly in a week or
two more; perhaps from unforeseen circumstances not for three months.
Slowly these will begin to show themselves as young ferns, and most
interesting it is to watch the results. As the ferns are gradually
increasing in size pass a small piece of slate under the edge of the
bell-glass to admit air, and do this by very careful degrees, allowing more
and more air to reach them. Never water overhead until the seedlings are
acclimated and have perfect form as ferns, and even then water at the edges
of the pots. In due time carefully prick out, and the task so interesting
to watch is performed.--_The Garden_.
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