CYATHEA ARBOREA. 



137 



gular windings, with their small oval or oblong leaf- 

 like fronds. The sides of the bare rocks, and the 

 surfaces of the large loose stones, that lie in the 

 woods, half concealed by bushes, are sprawled over 

 by similar caulescent and cHnging species of the great 

 Fern tribe, which is estimated to constitute one ninth 

 part of the whole vegetation of Jamaica. 



I will mention but one more member of this tribe, 

 a Tree-fern of peculiar beauty, that I found growing 

 in some abundance in a spot of more than usual 

 gloom and grandeur, far on towards Rotherwood. 

 The species was, I believe, Cijathea arborea, taller 

 and more graceful than the AlsopUla of the moun- 

 tain-brow. The slender stems, each marked with its 

 oval, scale-like scars, and throwing out from its sum- 

 mit its swelling cluster of leaf-bases so compact and 

 so regular as to look like the elegantly fluted knob 

 of some cast-iron pillar, again constricted before they 

 spread abroad in a wide umbrella of finely cut foliage, 

 — had an imposing effect here in the rather open 

 woods, surrounded by the naked irregular trunks, 

 moss-grown and studded with parasites, of the tall 

 trees that towered up, and interwove their branches 

 far above their heads, shutting out the sun, and 

 almost the light. 



In a very dense, and nearly impenetrable, part of 

 the bush that borders this lane, I found, about the 

 end of February, some fine plants, in full flower, of 

 that noble and magnificent terrestrial Orchid, Phajus 

 Tankervillice* The flower-spikes, which rose to a 



» Though the extremity of the labellum in the plants above 

 mentioned, was of a deeper and more purple tint than in the pub- 



