195 



be used with its maximum effect as regards the production of the 

 aroma, i. e., for producing really aromatic rums, that two cisterns must 

 be used, that the juice must be allowed to sour for at least 24 hours and 

 the juice of one souring mast on no account be mixed immediately 

 precious to fermentation, with freshly tempered skimmings. That 

 the juice should rest for a considerable period in the mixing cistern is 

 evident, because the object is in this case to develop acidity, and that it 

 should not be mixed with freshly tempered skimmings seems equally 

 evident because the excess of temper lime present in the skimmings would 

 neutralise the fruity acid if any had been sent free, and so just lock up 

 the aroma again. As to the amount of influence to be ascribed to this 

 fruity acid or its ether in producing high class rum it is almost im- 

 possible to say but I have often been able to detect its presence by 

 mell in good rum. It seems however a perfectly just inference to draw 

 since it is present in considerable quantities in cane juice, and since it 

 can be set free by the ordinary processes of the Boiling House and Still 

 House, that it does in many cases influence the character of a rum con- 

 siderably It would be exceedingly interesting to know if this fruity 

 acid is present in the cane juice from different soils and from different 

 canes. It might be that the same cane grown in different soils or 

 different kinds of cane grown in the same soil might produce different 

 aromatic acids. Thus in some rums I have been able to detect and ex- 

 tract by means of petroleum ether a sm 11 exactly resembling new 

 leather, and it may be that this new leather smell is caused by the 

 presence in the rum, of an acid possessing this aroma. This can only be 

 decided with certainty by a chemical examination of the cane juice from 

 estates producing a new leather smell in rum The new leather smell 

 however may be an artificial flavoring because there is a certain wood 

 which grows in J amaica which has a smell very much resembling that 

 of new leather, and which is capable of giving up its aroma to rum 

 when it is soaked in it. 



FERNS : SYNOPTICAL LIST— XXIX. 



Synoptical List, ivith descriptions of the Ferns and Fern-Allies of Ja- 

 maica, by G. S. Jenman, Superintendent Botanical Gardens, Deme- 

 rara, ( continued from Bulletin I, 6.) 



Tribe IX. Aspide^e. 

 Sori elliptical, circular or sub-reniform, rarely much larger than a 

 pin's head, usually smaller ; receptacles punctiform or elongated, dorsal 

 or terminal on the veins ; sporangia compressed, stipitate, arched by an 

 incomplete jointed vertical ring, splitting transversely when mature ; 

 involucres orbicular, shield-like, and attached by the centre of the disk, 

 or subreniform and attached eccentrically in the sinus of the auricles, 

 or elliptical-oblong, and attached through the centre ; the edges in all 

 cases free ; tumid or flat, naked or ciliate, persistent and shrivelling 

 with age or deciduous at maturity, sometimes rudimentary ; venation 

 variable, pinnate and free, or with opposite branches , uniting, or 

 copiously reticulated with free included veinlets, cutting and size very 

 variable. Five genera of very unequal size represent this tribe in this 

 Flora. Grisebach in his Flora of the British West Indian Islands ; 

 following Mettenius and the older botanists, includes all but one in the 



