454 Observations on Ferns 



with these drawbacks, I have sent or brought home upwards 

 of 80 species of ferns, and about 500 species of phaenogamous 

 plants. Now, if with the slender means that I possesed, T 

 was able to make such a collection, what might not be ex- 

 pected from any intelligent botanist, who would visit these 

 islands? I have no hesitation in saying his harvest would be 

 most abundant. 



The number of ferns enumerated below amounts to seventy 

 five species. They were collected in the parishes of St. Eli- 

 zabeth, and Manchester, in the island of Jamaica, during my 

 residence there in the years 1823-4-5, and part of 1826. — 

 The time that I was enabled to appropriate to botanical pur- 

 suits was very limited; my avocations and a severe fit of illness 

 prevented me from devoting to the collection of specimens 

 so much time as I wished to do. 



The portion of country in which I made my collections was 

 small, extending only, from east to west, about 25 miles, and 

 from north to south about 15 miles ; and in this small space, 

 nine-tenths of the ferns were collected in the eastern half, 

 which is a more mountainous and less settled district than 

 the western portion. I was particularly struck with the cir- 

 cumstance that few of the ferns growing in the western, or 

 more open district, were to be found in the eastern or more 

 wooded one, although the distance was so trifling, and in some 

 cases the habitats (stone walls) were the same. I will point 

 out a few instances ; but in the first place I should mention, 

 that the western portion of this district has been much long- 

 er under cultivation than the eastern, and that, consequently, 

 there is very little woodland left. The timbers are of a small 

 description, few of the trees exceeding ten inches in diame- 

 ter, and those growing mostly in places the cultivation of 

 which is given up, or in the local island phrase, " run to ru- 

 inate." These thickets, for they are little better, generally 

 consist of bully tree, {Achras, sp.), lance-wood, (Guatteria vir- 

 gata, Dunal.), maiden plum, (Comocladia iniegrifolia, Linn.), 

 birch, {Bursera gummifera, Jacq.), &c. A large portion of 

 this part also is a lowland district, the cultivated part prin- 

 cipally grass, the establishments being for the breeding of 

 horses, mules, and horned stock, and in some few places, the 

 sugar-cane is grown. The fences are either logwood, {Hce- 

 matoxylon campeachianum, Linn.), which, when clipped, 

 looks very like a hawthorn hedge, and forcibly reminds the 

 traveller of the well-trimmed hedges of home; pinguin, (Bro- 

 melia Pinguin, Linn.) ; or stone walls; these last are a favorite 

 habitat of ferns, the top being often crested with them for 

 their whole length. 



