FERN BULLETIN. 



VOL. V. 



JULY, 1897. 



NO. 3. 



JAMAICA, THE FERN=LOVER'S PARADISE.* 



By B. D. Gilbert. 



HE island of Jamaica has long been known among botanists 



as especially prolific in ferns. From the time of Sir Hans 



Sloane, who went to Jamaica as early as 1687, and whose 

 library and natural history collections, including the plants of 

 the island, formed the foundation of the British Museum, down 

 to the present time, the known number of fern species in Jamaica 

 has continually increased and is still increasing to-day. Olaf 

 Swartz, the Swedish pteridologist, who first put the study of 

 ferns on a scientific basis, visited Jamaica in 1783-6. and his 

 well-known work, the "Species Filicum," published in 1806. was 

 founded largely on the ferns gathered in that island and in the 

 other inlands of the West Indies. 



Since the time of Swartz, at least a dozen botanists have made 

 a specialty of collecting ferns in Jamaica. The most complete 

 catalogue published down to 1864 was the one given by Griesbach 

 in his "Flora of the British West Indies." His list credited 

 three hundred species to the island. But since the publication 

 of Griesbach's flora, such enthusiasts as Wilson. Nock, Sherring 

 and Jenman have scoured the Blue mountains in search of fern 

 novelties, and have not only discovered scores of species already 

 known in Cuba or on the South American continent, but have 

 added many new species not previously collected elsewhere. There 

 is no doubt in my mind that no other area of land in the world, 

 of the same extent, produces one- half the number of fern species 

 and varieties that grow in Jamaica. Well may we call it the 

 fern-lover's paradise. 



*From a paper read before the Torrey Botanical Club, Mar. 9, 1897. 



