—37— 



by this means of living. In fact, without stopping to 

 count I am inclined to say that as many species live 

 above the earth as upon it. The tiny, filmy ferns, of 

 the genera Trichomanes and HymcnophyUum are some- 

 times called brothers to the mosses ; and in Jamaica they 

 really deserve the title, crowding the. mosses so much 

 for room on all the moist trunks that in sort of revenge 

 some species of mosses find a home on their fronds. The 

 filmies also grow on wet rocks, old logs, and other places 

 where their stronger competitors among the ferns can 

 find no foothold. 



But the struggle for existence has produced other 

 types, among them — 



" Those who fight and run away.'' 



Apparently not liking the struggle, or perhaps getting 

 the worst of it, they have taken to locations where the 

 others dare not follow them. The hard, sunbaked, ex- 

 posed hillsides, upon which rain often does not fall for 

 months, has its own fern flora, albeit much scantier 

 than in more favored regions. The ordinary fern leaf 

 could not endure, unprotected, the steady downpour of 

 heat, day after day, to which these are subjected. The 

 dry ground species have, accordingly, various devices 

 to prevent complete dessication. The species of Gym- 

 no gramma, many of which frequent such places, have 

 the underside of the frond thickly powdered with farina 

 of various colors which give them the name of silver and 

 gold ferns. This farina is of a waterproof nature and 

 effectually conserves such water as the plants are able 

 to suck up from the soil. One species, G. rufa, lacks 

 the powdery covering but is thickly clothed with brown 

 hairs which answer the same purpose. To sight and 

 touch, the frond appears as if it might have been cut 

 out of greenish-brown velvet. Of similar appearance 

 are the fronds of Asplenium pumUum and Hemionitis 

 palmata to be found with it. 



The Notholcenas, most of them, have both hair and 



