THE FLORA OF THE RAIN-FOREST. 



Throughout the long history of the botanical exploration of Jamaica 

 the flora of the Blue Mountains has received attention from numerous 

 collectors, as well as from several systematists who have never visited 

 the island. Among the earlier students were Swartz, Browne, Jacquin, 

 Macfadyen, Purdie, M'Nab, Prior, and Marsh. More recently the 

 activity of the Department of Public Gardens and Plantations, for a 

 number of years located at Cinchona, in cooperation with the botanical 

 gardens at New York and Berlin, has added considerably to a knowl- 

 edge of the flora. At the present time these mountains may be looked 

 upon as botanically well known, except in their less accessible parts to 

 the north and northeast of Blue Mountain Peak. 



The only comprehensive systematic work available for the Blue 

 Mountain area is Grisebach's Flora of the British West Indies (1864). 

 Since its appearance a number of new species from the region have been 

 described in the Symbolae Antillanse, by Urban and his co-workers, 

 and in the Bulletin of the Torrey Botanical Club by Britton. For the 

 ferns an excellent manual exists in Jenman's Synoptical List of the 

 Ferns and Fern-Allies of Jamaica,^ since the publication of which a 

 number of new fern species have been described from the region by 

 Underwood and by Maxon. I have depended for my knowledge of 

 the flora on the above-mentioned works, and on the determinations of 

 my own collections, which have been made in part by Dr. N. L. Britton 

 and Mr. W. Ralph Maxon, to whom most grateful thanks for this 

 service are here returned, and in part by Mr. William Harris, who 

 possesses more complete first-hand knowledge of the region than any 

 other botanist. 



I have not been concerned with a complete listing of the flora, but 

 have endeavored to secure accurate determinations of all species which 

 go to make up the characteristic features of the vegetation. In order 

 to bring together in taxonomic sequence, with author names, all the 

 plants mentioned in the description of the vegetation, the following 

 list is given. The sequence is that of the Natiirlichen Pflanzenfamilien ; 

 the nomenclature for Pteridophytes is in accordance with Christensen's 

 Index Filicum, and the names for the Phanerogams have been brought 

 into agreement with the Vienna code through the kindness of Dr. 

 I. Urban. In the Pteridophytes the synonyms given in parentheses 

 are those used in Jenman's List ; in the Phanerogams those of the names 

 occurring in Grisebach's Flora and Fawcett's List which are now obso- 

 lete have been given as synonyms, to which are added some names of 

 extra-Jamaican forms, to which the Jamaican species were erroneously 

 referred by early workers. 



ijenman. Synoptical List of the Ferns and Fern Allies. Bull. Dept. Pub. Gardens and Plant. 

 Jamaica. 

 18 



