TRANSACTIONS AND PROCEEDINGS 



BOTANICAL SOCIETY OF EDINBURGH, 



SESSION LXV. 



Presidential Address. — On the Ferns, especially the 

 Filmy Ferns, of Jamaica. By Eev. David Paul, 

 LL.D., Edinburgh. 



(Delivered 8th November 1900.) 



There are few botanical subjects on which I should feel 

 any confidence in addressing a society like this. But, as 

 you have done me the honour to call me to the chair — an 

 honour which I greatly appreciate, and for which I 

 sincerely thank you, — the least I can do is to take 

 advantage of the opportunity offered me to-night, and read 

 you a paper dealing with some corner of the great field of 

 botanical science. After reviewing one or two of these 

 corners into which I have chanced to stray, I have come 

 to the conclusion that 1 could not, perhaps, do better than 

 offer to you some remarks on the Ferns of Jamaica, partly 

 because the subject seems interesting in itself, and partly 

 because it possesses something of novelty, as almost none 

 of us have had the privilege of exploring the flora of that 

 beautiful island, one of the fairest and richest in vegeta- 

 tion in the great British Empire. With the exception, 

 perhaps, of the island of Cevlon, there is no part of Her 

 Majesty's dominions that so teems with plant life in varied 

 and remarkable forms, and, with the exception perhaps of 



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