8 TRANSACTIONS AND PROCEEDINGS OF THE [Sess. LXV. 



lanahim, F^e, a tiny thing, with tender pendent fronds 

 about an inch long, which are clothed with soft hairs, 

 and lie imbricated over one another in close patches, 

 which are often very large. It is of a brownish grey 

 colour, like that of H. scriccum, and the individual fronds 

 are in shape like the feathers drawn from a small bird's 

 breast. The only other it could be confounded with is 

 H. liirsutum, Sw., which has also little pendent fronds, 

 forming large patches, but they are longer, of a different 

 colour, and more divided. But none of the small ones 

 surpass H. dcffantisdmum. Fee, in beauty, with its very 

 narrow, slightly divided fronds and wavy margins. It 

 is a perfect gem ; but I must allow the dried specimens 

 to speak for themselves, although fronds separated for dry- 

 ing cannot give an idea of the beauty of a mass of it with 

 every frond hanging down distinct. I must pass over, 

 merely naming them — H. fucoides, Sw.; H. 'polyanthos, one 

 of the most abundant everywhere in the island above 1500 

 ft.; H. clavatum, Sw.; H. axillare, Sw.; H. lineare, Sw.; and 

 H. hirtellum, Sw, "With regard to S. ciliatum, Sw., which 

 is frequent in Jamaica, I found on the Soufriere, in St. 

 Vincent, a fern which answers very closely to the descrip- 

 tion of IT. ciliattim, but differs so greatly in size as to be 

 entitled to rank at least as a distinct variety. The fronds 

 of the Jamaican H. ciliatum are stated by Mr. Jenman to 

 have a length of from one and a half to three and a half 

 inches, whereas my Soufriere form attains a length of from 

 six to ten inches, and was found growing, not only on logs, 

 but also on the ground. There did not seem to be 

 anything special in the nature of the habitat to account 

 for this great increase of size. This St. Vincent plant was 

 quite the most beautiful of the larger Hymenophyllums I 

 saw in the West Indies. We were fortunate in finding, 

 in the short time at our disposal, fourteen out of twenty- 

 three species of Hymenophyllums that occur in Jamaica ; 

 two of the others have been only once found, and there 

 remain only seven, which are not rare, and would probably 

 have been found by us had our opportunities been greater. 

 Of twenty -five species of Trichomanes described by Mr. 

 Jenman as occurring in Jamaica, we succeeded in discover- 

 ing seventeen, or perhaps sixteen, for I am not sure, of 



