roiiK HORTUS JAMAICENSIS. 301 



2. DISCOLOR. PAUTV-COLOUllED, 



Flowers covymbed ; leaves oblong, lanceolate-acuuiinate, somewhat tooths 

 letted, Miiooili, beneath white tomeiitose-; stem siivubbv. 



Forbidden Fruit Sec Shaddock, 



'FORK FERN. ACROSTIGHUM. 



Cl. 24, OR. 1. Crypfoganua Jilici's. 



Gen. c^tar. The fructifications cover the whole under surface of the frond 

 Eighteen species have been discovered in Jamaica. 



With simp/d divided fro nda : 



1. FERRL'GINEUM. IRON. 



Fronds pinnatifid ; pianas linear-acute, spreading, quite entire, connate ; 

 stipe &mootii. 



2. POLYPODIOIDES. POLYPODIUM-LIKE. 



JPoIi/podium yninus piiundis raris subtus cincriis. Sloane, v. 1, p. 19. 

 Jicaule fronde piniiatija ad veniem divisu, loliis lincai ibus basi ad- 

 iiatis. Eiowne, p. 105. 



fronds pinnatifid ; pinna^ linear-obtuse, quite entire, spreading, crowned ; 

 ^tipe scaly. 



Browne calls this the smaller acrosticnm, with narrow lobed foliage, commonly found 

 In low, cool, and shady placf. It rises in tufts, and seldom exceeds ten or twelve 

 inches in length. Tlie bark of the frond is hoary and scaly, and has the fructifications 

 Tliore or less confluent, though, being sometimes distinct, this has the ap])earance of a, 

 foly podium. The footstalks are brownish, and the whole leaf and footstalk about four 

 WcUesiong, of a yellowish green colour above, whitish belo\y. 



With pinnate fronds : 



3. AOREUM. GOLDEN. 



Z'Onchitis paiustris maxima, Sloane, v. I, p. 76. Maximum uligi- 

 nosuin simplex^ casta crassiori, foliis oblongis disiinciis integris.~ 

 Browne, p. 105. 



Pinnas alternate, tongue-shaped, quite entire, smooth. 



Stipes or footstalks in bundles from the same root, which with the leaves rise nine 

 -feet high, tliey are the thickness of the little finger. The rib of the leaf is greenish, 

 cornered, eminent, irregularly shaped, having at every inch and a half distance tho 

 pinnas set alternated on small pedicels, about twenty in number; each pinna about 

 ^a foot long and three incnos broad in the middle, where broadest, being narrow at the 

 "teginning, and ending obuiseiy. The leaf is green, smooth, sometimes half cevered 

 over witli rusty coioured moss, in which lies tlie seed. It grows in marshes near the 

 Black River going to Old Harbour, and by Salt River near Passage Fort. It is used 

 for thatcii, -uiid iim decoction of the root aiopa dysenteries, by being drank ; it is ako 



excellent 



