Nov. 1900.] BOTANICAL SOCIETY OF EDINBUEGH 11 



number of the species are distributed, and the immense 

 number of the individual plants. It has been said that 

 within a radius of one hundred yards you may, in some 

 places, gather specimens of 50 different species. At any- 

 rate, one is greatly struck with the prodigality with which 

 they are scattered wherever ferns will grow — in woods, on 

 shady banks, among rocks, and by streams. The ferns are 

 undoubtedly the features of an island which is luxuriant 

 in all manner of vegetation. Even the casual tourist, who 

 does not know one fern from another, is struck by their 

 multitude and their diversity. Accustomed, as we are, to 

 the very small number of species that can be gathered in 

 any one even of the largest counties of Scotland — in 

 Perthshire, e.g., only 31 at the most — it seems incredible 

 that in Jamaica, which is not double the size of Perthshire 

 by 1200 square miles, one who knew them well could in 

 a very short time gather 300 different species and still 

 leave 173 of the rarer kinds untouched. And the same 

 remarks apply generally, though perhaps in a somewhat 

 less degree, to the only other two of the West Indian 

 islands I visited — Grenada and St. Vincent. Anyone who 

 loves ferns, and has means and leisure, would find that a 

 holiday spent in any of those islands would repay him a 

 thousandfold in the interest and pleasure he would 

 experience at the time, and in a store of delightful 

 recollections which would be a cherished possession to him 

 all the days of his life. 



I will conclude by mentioning two Jamaican ferns, 

 which are of unusual interest. The first is Schizcea elegans, 

 Sw., of which I have some very fine specimens on one 

 of the sheets. In Jamaica it is an exceedingly rare fern. 

 It was gathered by Purdie, as Mr. Jenman notes, in 1844, 

 on the Bluevale Mountains, at an altitude of 2000 ft. 

 It was not found again, I think, until quite recently, when 

 it was discovered in a wood by the side of the road that 

 leads from Eetirement to Accompong, the settlement of 

 the Moroons. It was there that I was able to secure a 

 number of specimens. It belongs to the same tribe as the 

 common Anemia adiantifolia, Sw., of which I also show a 

 specimen, and the no less common Lygodium volubile, Sw., 

 which climbs up trees to a height of twenty or thirty feet. 



