177 



Highest slopes of John Crow Peak, altitude 1,650-1,800 meters, 

 Underwood nos. 806, 2,456a ; Maxon no. 12^4. 



Base of John Crow Peak, altitude 1,500-1,650 meters, Underwood 

 no. 2387 ; Maxon no. 1260. 



New Haven Gap, altitude 1,650 meters, Underwood nos. 973, 1083, 

 1084 ; Clute no. III. 



Morces Gap, altitude 1,500 meters. Underwood nos. 509, 643; W. 

 Harris no. 7127. 



Blue Mountain Peak, W. Harris no. 7487- 



Cinchona, altitude 1,500 meters, Underwood no. 2626. 



Specimens of this plant were referred by Jenman to* Polypodium 

 rigescens Boryt described from the island of Bourbon. From that 

 species, however, P. rigens differs markedly in several characters 

 upon which Willdenow laid stress in his original description of 

 the latter species, and which were further brought out by Hooker 

 and Greville upon the occasion of their figuring an authentic spe- 

 cimen.:!: It is distinguished by the hispid-pilose covering of its 

 vascular parts {P. rigescens is described and figured as glabrous 

 throughout), by its greater size and relatively greater breadth, and 

 by the oblong rather than ovate-oblong shape of the pinn^. In 

 these differences the Jamaican plants are perfectly constant. 



The species is apparently not rare in Jamaica. Jenman's remarks 

 upon its habitat and distribution are of interest : " Frequent on the 

 branches of trees above 5,000 feet altitude ; among the most rigid 

 of all this miscellaneous group of species ; uniformly found grow- 

 ing on the branches of trees of the high ridges to which the dis- 

 tribution is confined, not on the trunks as most of the other similar 

 species do." 



POLYPODIUM AROMATICUM SP. NOV. 



Plant rigid, 1 5-20 cm. high : rhizome stout, suberect, considera- 

 bly elongate, with abundant dark-brown lanceolate attenuate chaff, 

 and bearing numerous closely set fronds imbricated much after 

 the manner of ElapJwglossum huacssaro : stipes averaging 3 cm. 

 long, dull-brownish, hispid by scattering short spinescent hairs 

 which from their fragility early impart a tuberculate appearance : 

 laminae pinnate, about 13-17 cm. long, at most 4 cm. broad, erect, 

 coriaceous, opaque, narrowly oblaceolate, giving rise rather abrupt- 

 ly to a terminal caudate segment 2-3 cm. long, which is subentire 

 except at the coarsely serrate base ; rachis hispid on both surfaces 

 throughout similarly to the stipe ; pinnas about 35 pairs, distinctly 

 alternate, linear, strongly revolute, 2-2.5 mrn. broad, nearly or 

 quite their width apart, entire, falcate, fully adnate to the blackish 

 rachis, dilated at the upper side, the apices acute; the lower pin- 

 nae gradually reduced, the lowermost not minute, 5-7 mm. long, 

 extremely brittle ; venation free, the distinctly black midveins 



* Bull. Hot. Dept. .Jamaica 4 : 117. 1897. 



t Polypodium rigescens Bory ; Willdenow, Sp. PL 5 ; 1S3. 1810. 



+ H..ol,tr and Grcville. Icon. Fil. 2 : pi. 52C..1831. 



