JAMAICA FEENS. 323 



occurs sparingly. The oolite here disappears, leaving the lias 

 exposed, or but thinly and partially covered by a strip of fuller's 

 earth. In consequence, the flora of this little tract (some six acres 

 in extent), differs widely from that of the surrounding country, and 

 includes a large number of plants which, to the best of my know- 

 ledge and observation, are not found, or are found but rarely, on the 

 Cotswolds. Lycopodium clavatum grows here in abundance (I find a 

 record of this dated fifty years back), with PotentiUa TormentiUa, a 

 scarce plant here. I may also add that here, and here alone in this 

 neighbourhood, I find the following sj)ecies more or less plentiful : — 

 Hieracium tridentatum, GnaphaUum si/lvaticuni, Vaccinium Myrtillus, 

 Digitalis piirjmrea, Luzula congesta, Carex pilulifera, C. pallescens, 

 Nephrodium Oreopteris, Calamagrostis Epigeios, Polytriclium juni- 

 perinum, Plagiothecium denticulatum, Hypmim Schreheri, Lepidozia 

 reptans, Jimgeruiannia crermlata, Bceomyces rufus, Cladonia digitata, 

 and C. cervicornis. It will be at once seen that these form a con- 

 sistent and what one may call a harmonious flora, being plants such 

 as are usually found associated together, which seems in itself an 

 argument for their being indigenous. To any one familiar with 

 the botany of Gloucestershire, I might summarize the botanical 

 features of this piece of ground, by comparing it to a morsel taken 

 out of the Forest of Dean and set down in our midst." 



Description of Tab. 223. — Lycopodium complanatum, L.. from a Glouces- 

 tershire specimen collected by the Rev, H. P. Reader. 1. Bract with spore-case. 

 2, Four microspores. 3. Separate microspores. 



JAMAICA FEENS. 



By G. S. Jenman, F.L.S. 



Having recently had the opportunity of examining the Jamaica 

 Ferns preserved in the Herbaria of the British Museum and Kew, 

 the result, so far as it affects the number of the species, is 

 embodied in the following paper. 



The British Museum contains the older types collected by 

 Swartz and Sloane, while the more copious collections made much 

 later by Purdie, Wiles, March, Wilson, McFadyen and others, 

 from which the chief knowledge of the West Indian ferns was 

 derived, are at Kew ; though a good set of Wilson's plants, some 

 of which are not elsewhere, and a few from Purdie and Wiles, are 

 in John Smith's collection in the British Museum. 



Cyathea jajviaicensis, n. sp. — Trunk tall, eventually becoming 

 12-14 feet high, unarmed, nerved below, but with a few narrow 

 scales at the apex ; fronds long, 2 feet wide, the reduced pinnse 

 extending to the base of the stipites, bipinnate ; pinnae sessile, 

 8-12 inches long, 2-2|- inches wide, and about the same distance 

 apart fromcostato costa ; pinnulae sessile, 1-1| inches long, hardly 

 ■| inch wide, deeply pinnatifid, with a subentire serrate apex; lobes 



