THE FERN BULLETIN 



ill 



it appears never to have been formally named. It is 

 usually spoken of as the "obtusilobata" form of the 

 species. Following the analogy of the sensitive fern 

 it may be called Onoclea Struthiopteris f. obtusilobata 

 or Struthiopteris Germanica f. obtusilobata. We il- 

 lustrate a pair of pinnae from near the middle of a 

 frond. 



A HUNT FOR LONCHITIS. 



Somewhere in the mountain forest of Jamaica 

 grows an exceedingly rare fern named by the scientists 

 Lonchitis aurita or L. pubcsccns. Its claim to our at- 

 tention, however, is not its mere rarity, for there are 

 many rare ferns in the magnificent fern-flora of that 

 delightful island, but the evanscent character of its 

 habitat and the confusion that exists regarding its spe- 

 cific distinctness. As regards the latter it may be said 

 that there is, in the tropical part of the Old World a 

 species closely resembling our own which scientists 

 agree in calling Lonchitis pubcsccns, but whether the 

 two plants are identical is a matter upon which opin- 

 ions differ. Those who have seen our own plant, how- 

 ever, are firmly convinced that it is a good species. 



A singular uncertainty attaches to the places in 

 which the ferns grows. The first American plants 

 were gathered by Plumier in Martinique nearly -250 

 years ago. but apparently have not been collected there 

 in recent years. About 1880 a botanist named Xock 

 found a plant in Jamica at Morce's Gap on the slopes 

 of John Crow Peak at an altitude of nearly a mile 

 above sea level, but efforts to find additional specimens 

 were futile, though had the plant been in the vicinity it 

 ought to have been easy to discover it since it com- 

 monly grows to the height of a man. 



