348 FERNS. 



pointed, all only a few inches in length ; the former 

 remarkable for the large size of the very conspicuous 

 horse-shoe-shaped sori, which, towards the point of 

 the leaf, overlap one another. The taper extremity 

 of the barren leaves gives origin to other leaves, 

 which add to the odd appearance of this little Fern. 

 It has been named Fadyenia prolifera, by Sir Wil- 

 liam Hooker, in honour of the late Dr James Mac- 

 fadyen, of Kingston, a most worthy man and excel- 

 lent botanist, whose admirable work on the botany 

 of Jamaica was interrupted by his lamented death. 



Besides these, which are stationary and local, there 

 are other Ferns of a much more restless habit, which 

 creep rapidly about, and, roaming over and around 

 these gigantic trunks, seem to claim them for their 

 own throughout their vast length. Polypodium vac- 

 cmiifolium, from an irregularly meandering root- 

 stock of a yellowish hue, densely covered with shaggy, 

 pointed scales, which clings to the bark, and crawling 

 up and up, like a rough caterpillar indefinitely ex- 

 tending itself, puts forth at short intervals a number 

 of small heart-shaped leaves, that look like those of 

 some evergreen phenogamous plant, rather than the 

 fronds of a fern. Then there is Gonioplilebium 

 piloselloides, which has a similar habit, with a much 

 slenderer clinging stem, not thicker than a bit of 

 copper wire, wliich it much resembles, sending forth 

 its hair-like roots on each side, over the smooth, gray 

 bark, and giving birth to stiff leaves clad with short 

 hairs. These differ ; the barren ones are oval ; the 



