285 



FERNS : SYNOPTICAL LIST— XXXI. 



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

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

 rara, (continued from Bulletin II, 11.) 



Tribe IX. Aspide^e. 



10. Aspidium Christianas, Jenm. n. sp. — Rootstock erector decum- 

 bent, stout, densely clothed with large ovate-lanceolate black scales ; 

 gtipites caespitose, erect, l-l^ ft. 1., channelled, clothed at the base like 

 the rootstock, and upwards with appressed, rather matted, tomentum ; 

 fronds erect, bitripinnate, oblong-acuminate, chartaceous, light green, 

 naked, or the under surface glabrescent, 1^-2 ft. 1. 9-12 in. w., not, or 

 little, reduced at the base ; rachis chanuelled, flat and margined in the 

 upper part, terminating often in a scaly bud, and with the channelled 

 and flattish costae clothed with deciduous pale appressed tomentum ; 

 pinnae numerous, 5-7 in. 1. l^-lf in. w., spreading, oblong-lanceolate, 

 serrate-acuminate, rather apart, or the lower ones sub- distant, stipitate, 

 pinnate ; pinnulae numerous, apart but contiguous, 1—1 J in. 1. 5-7 1. 

 w., ovate-oblong, acute or bluntish, obliquely cuneate-stipitate, 

 pinnatifid along both sides, or only on the upperside within, the 

 opposite underside cut away the outer part lobed and the point dentate; 

 segments oblong, rounded, the end faintly crenate, the interior one or 

 the upperside the largest and deepest, and 3-5 1., 1. 1^-2 1. w. ; lobes 

 and teeth of the outer part of the pinnules awned ; veins repeatedly 

 forked ; sori terminal on the lowest or lower veinlets, biserial in the 

 larger lobes and outer part of the pinnulae ; involucres orbicular, 

 deciduous. 



Common in woods on the Manchester mountains at 2,000 ft. 

 altitude. The pinnulae are much larger and laxer than in the 

 preceding, and the teeth are not aristate. The involucres fall away 

 early, and the sporangia are mixed with scales. Mr. Baker unites this 

 with his Nephrodium patulum, a plant also common in Jamaica and 

 clearly distinct. Though the vestiture is striking and abundant, it is 

 deciduous, and specimens often appear quite naked. It is very near in 

 form and cutting to N. mexicanum, Hook. This may be Poly podium 

 miser, Heward, collected by him in the Manchester and St. Elizabeth 

 mountains during 1823-6 and published by him in 1838 in the 

 Magazine of Natural History. 



11. A. capense, Willd. — Rootstock creeping, stoutish, densely clothed 

 with reddish scales ; stipites apart, strong, subpendent, faintly chan- 

 nelled, densely scaly at the base, and d<-ciduously fibrillose upwards, 

 6-13 in. 1., fronds nearly deltoid, 1-1J ft. 1. 9-15 in. b., widest at the 

 base, thence tapering to the serrate acuminate apex, fully tripinnate ; 

 coriaceous, of a glossy pale colour, rachis and costae stramineous, deci- 

 duously fibrillose, bichannelled ; pinnae approximate, lanceolate, or the 

 lower ones elongato-deltoid, the lowest pair deeper on the inferior side, 

 and 6-9 in. 1. 4-6 in b., serrate-acuminate as are those above, petiolate, 

 J-l in. 1. ; pinnulae stipitate, ovate or lanceolate, the larger pinnate and 

 serrate-acuminate, the smaller acute subentire and serrate ; tertiary 

 segments ovate or lanceolate and dentate, the larger bluntly lobed at 

 the base, ^-1 in. 1. J- J in. b. glabrous, of a glossy pale colour ; veins 

 immersed, several times forked ; sori medial on the lowest anterior 



