Fern Prothallia are spore bearing plants that develop from the haploid spores produced by adult ferns. Their own spores combine sexually to produce diploid offsrping which are the adult ferns we are familiar with. This alternation of generations seems strange to us, but I suppose that if ferns were capable of thought they might feel the same way about our own method of reproduction!

"Porthallia", on the other hand, is an obvious misspelling of "prothallia" a plural form that should be single in this case! This is just one of several misspellings found in the description of this slide set, which was made in China and is sold by a lot of different vendors around the world.

This slide was purchased on Ebay and is part of 100 prepared slides " set B" I hope you enjoy the microscopic pictures of Fern Prothallium found on this page. I believe you'll find these images of Fern Prothallium to be superior to those found elsewhere!