JAMAICA FERNS. 261 



conspicuous above, obsolete or obscure beneath ; sori small, close 

 to the margin ; involucre small, fugacious ; capsules ciliate. No. 

 36, Herb. Kew, 1878. " Near X. rigiduluin, Baker, from Cuba," 

 Baker, MSS. Though the fronds are not strictly dimorphous, the 

 majority are barren ; and to this feature and their resemblance 

 otherwise to the fronds of seedling tree-ferns, as the i^lants are seen 

 growing in the forest among the trailing bamboo and other under- 

 growth, is due the circumstance that nearly all the Jamaican 

 collectors appear to have tramped over the species on the only 

 track-way approaching Blue Mountain Peak, where it is found, 

 without having gathered it. 



yejjJti'odiwn Sprem/elii, Hook., Yiii\ jiersicinum, Jenman : growth 

 coarser than in the type, the nascent fronds thickly coated with 

 mucous, viscid throughout when mature, strongly peach-scented; 

 margins inflexed, nearly. enclosing the sori. No. 37, Herb. Kew, 

 1878. Though nearly identical in cutting with conterininum and 

 Sprengelii, probably entitled to sxDecific distinction. 



75.* Nephrodium Sherringii, Jenman, n. sp. — Caudex erect; 

 stipites csespitose, very short, scaly; fi-onds erect, lanceolate or 

 ovate-lanceolate, acuminate, fully pinnate to the very apex, 2 to 3 

 feet long, 10 to 14 inches wide ; pinnae copious, spreading, . 



dwindling down gradually to mere segments at the base, quite ^ 

 sessile, largest 6 to 8 inches long, 1^ to 2 inches wide, acuminate, 

 cut down to the narrowly-winged costte into ligulate, bluntish or 

 acute, subentire, toothed or deeioly-lobed pinnules, which are i to 

 1^ inch long, 2 to 3 lines wide, with a rounded open sinus between 

 them, the inferior one on the lower side producing a small auricle 

 which overlaps the rachis ; texture chartaceous ; colour light 

 green ; both surfaces, with the rachis, puberulous-glandulose ; 

 cortex finely ciliate above, the edge of the margins obscurely 

 cartilaginous-toothed ; veins pellucid, about 16 to a side, simple, 

 forked, or pinnate ; sori small, one to each branch, medial, or 

 nearer the edge; involucre persistent, glandulose. No. 1, Herb. 

 Kew, 1879. 



63.''' Nephrodium Jenmcmi, Baker, var. sitiorum, Jenman : stipes 

 and rachis slender ; pinnae in opposite, patent pairs, narrow, and ^^ 

 diminishing gradually from the base outwards, the acuminate 

 attenuated apices usually enthe ; basal pinnules enlarged and 

 increasing in size as the pinnae dwindle to mere auricles at 

 the base of the stipes ; veins evident on the upper side ; sori 

 hardly medial. No. 38, Herb. Kew, 1878. " Near A. pohjjjhyllum, 

 Kaulf." Baker MSS. 



NejjJirodiiim suhfuscum, Baker '? : a large robust species, marked 

 by its si:out, erect, caudex, nearly as thick as one's wrist, and the 

 enlarged, often again pinnatifid, basal pinnules. No. 40, Herb. 

 Kew, 1878. " K. imtens, var. a^Dproaching snhfusciim.'' Baker 

 MSS. X. patens has a creeping hypogasous rhizome, and is a much 

 smaller plant. 



Nephrodium Fendleri, H. K. 



N. brachyodon, H. K. 



161.''' Nephrodium usitatum, Jenman, u. sp. — Caudex stout, P^ 



