Vol. 49 No. 1 
BULLETIN 
TORREY BOTANICAL CLUB 
JANUARY, 1922 
Epiphyllous plants of certain regions in Jamaica* 
Louis J. PESSIN 
(WITH PLATE I AND ONE TEXT FIGURE) 
The great variety and luxuriant growth of the epiphyllous 
plants seen in Jamaica in the summer of 1919 led the writer to 
study them from two points of view: first, their distribution in 
relation to climatic conditions; second, their histological relation 
to the leaves bearing them, in order to determine whether these 
epiphytes are to any degree parasitic. The study of the distri- 
bution and environment of the epiphyllous plants was made in 
the field. The relation of the’epiphyll to its supporting leaf was 
studied by histological methods in the laboratory. 
HISTORICAL §, 
Very little is known about epiphyllous plants today, in spite 
of the fact that they have long interested botanists. As early as 
1875 Berkeley (1) reported the occurrence of epiphyllous lichens 
growing on the leaves of the tea plant; some of these apparently 
epiphyllous forms showed marked parasitic adaptation. Such 
forms were found in abundance in warm moist regions. Two of 
the forms observed by Berkeley were regarded as species belonging 
to the genus Strigula. 
A few years after Berkeley’s paper appeared, Cunningham (2) 
reported on an epiphyllous lichen and an epiphyllous alga, My- 
coidea parasitica, parasitic on leaves of Mangifera indica, Croton 
and Rhododendron. 
[The BULLETIN for December (48 : 315-363) was issued February 28, 1922.] 
od Botanical Contribution No. 69 from the Johns Hopkins University. 
i 
