BOTANICAL INFORMATION. 517 
in this district, but the negroes do not pay any attention to its 
cultivation; Yams and Cocoa-nuts are considered better ; 
though for my part I am very fond of the Bread-fruit. On 
reaching Spring Hill, we were kindly received by Mr. Fog- 
harty, the intelligent overseer, who is much attached to 
botany, and possesses an excellent collection of the Ferns of 
the neighbourhood. 
After spending two days of bad weather in this dis- 
trict, which is very fertile in rare Ferns, I started on 
the 23rd. of June for Fox's Gap, accompanied by Mr. 
Fogharty. Ascending by a narrow pass along paths which 
are very bad, and certainly ought not to be dignified by 
the title of a road, we reached Shantamee, the highest re- 
sidence, and breakfasted there, and changing our mules, we 
proceeded and soon gained a dense wood, abounding with 
the larger timbers of Jamaica, Moronobea coccinea of im- 
mense size, the ground strewed with its coral-like petals, the 
stems chopped round by the negroes to obtain the. gum, 
which they use as a substitute for wax, as also for making 
strengthening plaisters : Xanthoxylon Clava Herculis, a very 
peculiar looking tree, armed "with numerous and formidable 
spines; Zrophis Americana; Psidium montanum, with its 
immense marble-like stem, and Santa Maria(?) of prodigious 
size. Marcgraavia umbellata climbs to an immense height 
on its noble dependants, and produces its singular drooping 
umbels of flowers abundantly, exhibiting a similar effect 
on trees to the ivy in Europe; it is no uncommon thing to 
see trees destroyed by it, while it maintains its luxuriance un- 
molested, and much heightened by the pendant nature of its 
ultimate branches. Leaving our mules, we started over 
some rocks towards the summit of the range, where I was 
much struck with the Acrostichum crinitum, which at a short 
distance I took for a Pothos; it is very common on moist. 
rocks in these woods, growing with Asplenium serratum ; here. 
also I observed a singular arborescent ferm, with a very 
slender stem, growing 30 to 40 feet high. Epidendrum fra- 
grans, Mazillaria discolor, several species of Pothos, Til. 
