MORASS-FERN. 337 



Let us transport ourselves once more, in imagina- 

 tion, to the south side of Jamaica, and, sauntering 

 along a devious way through the cane-pieces, and 

 park-like pens, and pimento groves of the lowland 

 slopes, gradually ascend the mountain-range that 

 borders the coast, and track the clefts and gullies of 

 the limestone formation filled with luxuriant and 

 gorgeous vegetation, till we reach the silent, sombre 

 forest that clothes the shaggy peaks. We land ; and, 

 before we have traversed a furlong, we are struck 

 with a gigantic Fern crowding the morass that steams 

 just within the belt of mangroves, whose bow-like 

 feet are bathed in the sea. It is Acrostictium <m- 

 reum : the fronds to the length of eight or ten feet 

 rise in noble crowns, and arch outward, covering a 

 vast area, their form elegantly pinnate, like the leaves 

 of the ash-tree, of a bright green hue, smooth and 

 glossy ; and the fertile ones entirely covered beneath 

 with the golden-brown sori, lost in one common con- 

 fluence. The base forms a short, thick stem, rising 

 out of the stagnant water, and it may therefore be 

 considered a tree-fern of low stature. Further on, in 

 drier spots, we see several species of ElapJioglossiim, 

 a name given in allusion to our own " hart's-tongue," 

 to which they bear some resemblance in their simple 

 lance-shaped fronds, such as E. conforme and E. 

 latifolium, dwarf ferns with thick glossy crowded 

 leaves, golden beneath : some, however, as E. squamo- 

 sum, are narrow and strap-shaped, and have a sin* 

 gular appearance from the edges of their leaves and 



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