BIRD-FOOT. 351 



other subarborescent species in these dense matted 

 woods, Marattia alata, whose fronds have the peculia- 

 rity of springing out of the thick, fleshy stem, between 

 two appendages which resemble abortive fronds, and 

 whose fructification is entirely destitute of the elastic 

 ring, which is so characteristic of this great tribe of 

 plants, raising this genus to a higher rank than other 

 Ferns, and presenting the closest approach of any to 

 the flowering plants. Among Ferns of humbler preten- 

 sions, the pretty little Bird-foot, Glieilantlies radiata, 

 spreads its maidenhair-like pinnas in the form of five- 

 rayed stars, or like slender-armed star-fishes changed 

 to green plants by one of Ovid's metamorphoses, each 

 at the summit of a tall, erect, slender stalk. And 

 beneath the shadow of the lofty Marattia reclines the 

 curious Ivy-fern, Hemionitis palmata, whose five- 

 angled leaves, grovelling on the ground, clothed with 

 a bristling crop of red down, scarcely look like those 

 of a Fern at all, till you gather one, and hold it up to 

 the light, when the network of veins appears ; unless, 

 indeed, the plant is in fructification, when the fertile 

 fronds, standing erect, display on their inferior surface 

 the rust-brown lines of sori exactly corresponding to 

 the veins, an exquisite net of dark red meshes spread 

 over the pale green leaf. 



Should our way lead us into one of those deep nar- 

 row gullies or gorges which so frequently occur in the 

 limestone formations .of the Jamaica mountain-region, 

 we might see Ferns of yet another type, such as occur 

 only in such or similar conditions. A rank, coarse 



