Nov. 1900.] BOTANICAL SOCIETY OF EDINBURGH 9 



T. reptans, Sw. Three, at any rate, of these, however — 

 T'. j9/n?irt/w?H, Hedw. ; :Z'. s/)iV«^u?», Hedw.; and T. Kaidfussii, 

 Hook, and Grev., I did not see in Jamaica at all. T. 

 pinnatum is perhaps not found there ; T. spicatum is very- 

 rare, and so is T. Kaidfussii. I found T. pinnah/m and 

 T. Kaidfussii in Grenada, and T. spicatum, low down on the 

 Soufriere, in St. Vincent. We were not able to find T. 

 lucens, Sw., which is a very beautiful fern, and is not 

 uncommon at a high altitude in Jamaica ; but a coloured 

 man who was with us picked one plant and brought it to 

 us. Even after that encouragement, however, we did not 

 manage to find another. But we found, either then or 

 afterwards, T. sphenoides, Kze.; T. 2yy.sillur/i,Sw'.: T. Krausii, 

 Hook, and Grev.; T. membranaceum, L.; T. sinuosum, Eich.; 

 T. crisjni'Di, L. ; T. alatuni, Sw. ; T. Bancrofti, Hook, and 

 Grev.; T. pijxidiferum, L., a very lovely little plant ; T. 

 trichoideum, Sw.; T. scandens, L.; T. radicaus, Sw.; and 

 T. rigidum, Sw. 



A class of plants so tender and beautiful as the tropical 

 filmy ferns have naturally attracted fern-growers in this 

 country, but the cultivation of them has been attended with 

 only partial success. One great difficulty has been to 

 obtain healthy and vigorous plants at the outset. They 

 may be sent over in Wardian cases, but then they require 

 to be looked after on the voyage by someone who under- 

 stands how to manage them ; and even then a Wardian 

 case is a bulky and brittle article. If they are packed in 

 a tin box in the ordinary way, it is exceedingly difficult to 

 strike the happy medium between packing them too wet 

 and packing them too dry ; and they reach this country 

 either shrivelled up for lack of moisture or blackened by 

 damp, so that only a very small percentage of the plants 

 despatched from the West Indies are fit for growing. But 

 even if you have good plants to start with, it is by no 

 means easy to copy the conditions under which they grow 

 in their native climate. You must give them a warm, 

 moist atmosphere, and not too much light ; but the 

 atmosphere ought not to be stagnant ; and the tender 

 kinds may very easily be kept too warm and too moist. 

 They are very apt to rot with damp, especially the hairy 

 species like Hymenophyllum lanatum and H. sericcum, or 



