110 
habitats and distribution of the Jamaica ferns, which was the 
main object of the expedition, no conditions could have been 
more favorable. The weather, moreover, was all that could be 
desired for curing the specimens, being in the midst of the dry 
season, which this year was exceptionally free from rain. The 
entire lowland region between Kingston and the foothills below 
Cinchona was yellow and brown at this season with the parched 
vegetation, the hills reminding one of California in summer; ex- 
cept in favored localities a somewhat similar condition prevailed 
well up toward Cinchona, but in the higher altitudes the air be- 
came more moist, and while there was little rain, clouds often 
floated about the mountains and settled like a moist fog, but 
were soon dispelled. 
The path from Cinchona to Morce’s Gap, a nearly level stretch 
of three miles, passes at one point over the dividing ridge between 
the north and south slopes of the range ; within so short a space 
as fifty feet from this divide the change of vegetation is clearly 
apparent and you are thrown at once from ordinary forest condi- 
tions into the midst of a tropical forest in which tree ferns form a 
predominant feature and every projecting root, every sheltered 
bank, and the trunks of the tree ferns themselves are the nesting 
places of exquisite filmy ferns. Without stepping from the bridle- 
path one could readily gather one hundred species of ferns in 
going over these three miles, and mosses and hepatics are in simi- 
lar profusion. 
e Blue Mountain region is historically interesting to a 
botanist as the region in which Swartz made his early collections 
over a century ago, and the mosses and liverworts had scarcely 
been collected since his time. Many of his type specimens of 
ferns came from this region and the material obtained will possess 
a greater value from this circumstance. 
Toward the end of February I made arrangements to go to 
Santiago, Cuba, to meet Professor Earle whose report of our col- 
lections made in that island during March has already appeared 
in the May JournaL. I have only to add the fact of the extreme 
difficulty of securing passage between these two islands only 
ninety miles apart. My passage over was finally made in a 
