6 



!Proours equal weights of bees wax and common resm. To a quarter of a pound of each add a tea* 



spoonful of cocoanut oil, or even animal fat ; put into a vessel and boil. This must be done close to 

 the tree on which the operation is being performed. The shreds of colico should be one inch wide, and 

 long enough to thoroughly wrap the wound. When ready take hold with the hands of both ends and 

 let all but the ends sink into the boiling wax until saturated, then draw it across the edge of the vessel 

 to dislodge all excess of wax and allow it to cool until it can be touched by a damp finger with impu- 

 nity. This part of the operation is of the utmost importance, inasmuch, as the application of the 

 waxed cloth too hot, will scald the tender bark and thereby neutralize all hope of success ; on the other 

 hand, if applied too cold it is rendered unsuitable for the purpose intended. 



When the requisite temperature has been attained, the waxed shred must be wrapped tightly and 

 carefully round the wound; and this completes the operation. Kind nature will accomplish the rest. 

 It is now only necessary to keep the soil in the pot moist ; and to prevent undue evaporation the space 

 between the surface of the soil and the top of the pot should be stufied loosely with either moss or hay. 

 If the tree sought to be propagated is of moderate size a hundred or perhaps two hundred pots might 

 be fixed to it at one time. It would cost very little more to water and otherwise nurse two hundred 

 in arched plants than it would one hundred. In about six or eight weeks after the operation, with a 

 view to aid in weaning, if I may so express myself, the scion from the parent tree, a notch should be 

 made in the sjion, immediately below the point of union, reaching almost to the pith. In two weeks 

 thereafter the notch ought to be deepened, but not widened, through and slightly beyond the pith ; 

 and finally in a week or two weeks more, if the weather is moist, the scion should be severed and the 

 new plant taken from the tree, shaded from the sun, and for a time most carefully nursed. It may bo 

 well to state that the beginner should not attempt to sever the scion from the parent tree unless 

 when its leaves are developed and matured. When it is evident that the plant is out of all danger, 

 and when active growth has set in, the stock, above the graft, should be cut back, a piece at a time, 

 until finally fore shortened to the upper end of the grafted part. I much regret that so very simple 

 an operation should require such a lengthy description as this, but without the aid of one or two sim- 

 ple diagrams I have, in justice to the subject, found it imposible to curtail it. I have moreover to say 

 that as (simple as the above operation is,) I may have failed to make it understood to your readers, I 

 shall therefore be glad to give oral instruction with example to any one visiting Castleton. For the 

 theory and details, descriptive and illustrative, of grafting in all its modes, I beg to refer readers to 

 " Baltet's Art of Grafting," published, I believe, at the office of The Garden, 37 Southampton Street, 

 Covent Garden, London 



The popular opinion in Jamaica that the majority of the seeds of a sweet orange will produce sour 

 orange plants is not quite well founded, though there need be little surprise felt if a goodly propor- 

 tion of the trees are productive of sour fruits. It may be safely asserted that there are few good 

 sweet orange trees in this island so isolated from inferior varieties, sour fruited Shaddock, Grape- 

 friiit. Citron, Lemon, or Lime Trees as to be beyond the influence of the fecundating pollen of the 

 latter. It is inferentiully chiefly to this influence, rather than to an inherent tendency in the issue, 

 that many seedlings, raised from sweet orange seed, exhibit what may be and are termed degenerate 

 or unmarketable fruits. I gladly grant that there is in a fertile plant an inherent tendency to pro- 

 duce, in characteristics, variable issue, but this providentially over-ruled and in a great measure held 

 in check by the prepotent law of sap- relationship or heredity, formulated in the words — "like pro- 

 duces like." And in this faith I would suggest that, just as early as possible, gardens, pastures and 

 woodlands should be cleared, and rigorously kept clear, of most of the unprofitable fruit trees above- 

 named, with a view to ensure an extensive increase of seedling sweet orange trees. 



From observations extending over four and a half years in Jamaica, I find that sweet orange 

 trees generally bear a heavy and a light, or moderate, crop of fruit alternately. I am of opinion that 

 what I have called the light crop might, in a general way, be made to assume the proportions of a 

 good and profitable one, by the judicious application of suitable and requisite manure. For the 

 manure to have this efPect it should be applied as a top dressing, and partly or wholly worked into 

 the soil, about the close of crop, in the season of abundance. 



I am, Mr. Editor, 



Faithfully yours, 



Geo. Stme, Castleton Gardens. 



March 26th, 1884. 



FERNS : SYNOPTICAL LIST.— XVII. 



Synoptical List with descriptions of the Ferns and Fern-Allies of Jamaica, by O. S. Jenman, Superin- 

 tendent, Botanical Gardens, Demerara, (continued from Bulletin No 4-1.) 



? 13. Pteris btilbifera Jenm. n. sp. — Rootstock upright fibrous, with bulb-like, aggregated buds, that 

 are clothed with dense, appressed, rusty coated scales ; stipites 1^-2 ft. I. tufted, stiffly erect, chan- 

 nelled, with the persistent scales of the buds at the articulate base ; fronds ample, 3-4 ft. I. and as w. 

 deltoid, bi-tripinnate, subcoriaceous, naked, dark green glossy on the upper side, paler beneath, pinnae 

 in opposite or alternate pairs, the lowest largest and often branched again at the base on the inferior 

 side, petiolate, 1-1^ ft. I. 4-8 in. w. with a long tapering serrated point 3-4 in I. terminal one similar, 

 deeply pinnatitid only, or the inferior fully pinnate within, segments subfalcate or straight, l|-4in. 

 1. ^-^ in. w. tapering, finely acuminate and spinulose-serrate at the end, with an open rounded sinus 

 as wide as the segment between, rachis glabrous, brown or stramineous, with generally a few distant 

 short spines on the upper part, the costac spinulescent above ; veins forming 2-4 rows of fine areolae. 



