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\, Flora. — The botanical features of Jamaica are very rich 

 and diversified. In 1893 Mr. Fawcett compiled a list of Jamaica 

 plants largely from Grisebach's Flora of the British West Indies 

 (1864) which enumerated about two thousand species of seed- 

 bearing plants. To this list the persistent field work of Mr. 

 William Harris has added nearly a fourth more. As is well 

 known, the ferns and their allies form an unusual ratio to the 

 seed-bearing plants and Jamaica possesses more species of these 

 groups than any other equivalent area of the entire world. 

 These were studied by the late Mr. Jenman, whose collection 

 became the property of the Garden in 1903. With the later 

 additions made to Jenman's work the number of species exceeds 

 five hundred, or perhaps one-sixth of the higher flora, and at 

 least two-thirds of these are found within a radius of ten miles 

 with Cinchona as a center. The mosses are abundant and some 

 grow in the greatest profusion in the higher altitudes ; they have 

 only recently been studied with any degree of thoroughness. 

 The same may be said of the hepatics, of which probably a 

 greater number exist than of the true mosses. Lichens are 

 abundant and have been only partially studied. The algae 

 which swarm in the tropical waters of the coast have been parti- 

 ally collected and have been listed by Mr. F. S. Collins, yet this 

 group awaits further study. Of all the groups of plants the 

 fungi alone seem to be deficient in number of species as compared 

 with temperate regions, although no very serious mycological 

 work has yet been done in the island. Within easy reach of 

 Cinchona we find abundance of original forest conditions. Nat- 

 urally shrubs and trees form the larger portion of the terrestrial 

 element of the higher plants, while epiphytic bromeliads, orchids, 

 and aroids, parasitic Loranthaceae and succulent Piperaceae and 

 Urticaceae exist in great profusion. The Eusporangiate ferns are 

 represented by Marattia and several species of Danaea, and by 

 three genera of Ophioglossaceae ; six species of Gleicheniaceae 

 form thickets at the higher elevations wherever land had once 

 been cleared; the moist woods beyond the divide abound in 

 numerous representatives of Jamaica's large array of endemic 

 tree-ferns, and filmies (Hymenophyllaceae) are found on every 



