83 



can be kept alive for months if care is taken to replenish the nu- 

 trient solution and not to 'expose the young sporophyte too long 

 to the dry atmosphere of the laboratory. 



These details of technique have been the gradual outgrowth of 

 the writer's experiences with many cultures of fern prothallia of 

 the various species of the Polypodiaceae. Especial emphasis is 

 laid upon careful and painstaking attention to details, and it is 

 only by experience that the value of so doing will be understood 

 and appreciated. 



TWO NEW WEST INDIAN PLANTS 



By N. L. Brixton. 



An Undescribed Stenophyllus fro:m Jamaica 



The species of the sedge genus Stowphyllus hitherto known to 

 inhabit Jamaica* are vS. junciformis (H. B. K.) Britton, which 

 has been collected in Clarendon and St. Andrew's, and 5". capil- 

 laris (L.) Britton, definite localities for which are at present 

 unknown. 



To these, ]\Ir. William Harris has recently added an unde- 

 scribed one, growing on a damp rocky slope at Old England Falls 

 at about iioo meters elevation in the Blue Mountains to be named 

 and characterized as follows : 



Stenophyllus Harrisii sp. nov. 



Densely tufted, with short rootstocks. Culms weak, glabrous, 

 about 6 dm. long and i mm. thick ; leaves reduced to basal sheaths 

 bearing ciliate blades 3 cm. long or less ; spikelet solitary, about 8 

 mm. long, subtended by one or two appressed bracts 5-6 mm. 

 long; scales few, ovate to ovate-oblong; style-branches 3 ; achene 

 obovoid, trigonous, about 0.7 mm. long, its broad top bearing a 

 minute black tubercle. 



Old England Falls, Jamaica {Harris ispoS, type; 12890). In 

 '12890 most of the spikelets are transformed into tufts of short 

 linear leaves. 



* Bull. Torrey Club 43 : 447. 



