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We drove one day to an old estate where we followed the 

 guide over a rocky path, between bushes of acacia, wild sage, 

 wild guava, and other shrubs, till we came to a low stone wall, 

 where we saw before us an abyss, very deep and wide, the bot- 

 tom nearly covered with a magnificent growth of Acrostichum 

 aureum. Further on we found another place, but a few feet 

 below the path. Here we procured a specimen, which proved to 

 be eight feet in length. The three or four pairs of sharp thorns 

 on the stipe were very evident. There were but six or eight 

 fertile pinnae, and several of the sterile pinnae were bi-lobed. 

 But we were in pursuit of Adiantums, and the guide took us first 

 to a spring-hole, very deep, containing good water. On the 

 rocky shelves were Adiantums and half a dozen other species, 

 but they were wholly inaccessible. So on we went till we found 

 a pit, not very deep and without water. Here we found 

 Adiantum tenerum, Adiantum melanoleucum, Dryoptcris patens 

 and Aspidium trifoliatum. A. Melanoleucum has become very rare, 

 from the bad habit of the people in pulling it up, for the frag- 

 rance in drying. It goes by the name of hay-fern. Aspidium tri- 

 foliatum is here rarely tri-foliate. We found but one specimen of 

 this shape in the island. Sometimes it is scarcely tri-lobed. On an 

 old wall within the limits of the city we found some starved 

 specimens in the cracks, which were oval, two inches long and 

 one-half inch wide. The edges very wrinkled and ruffled. The 

 venation and fruit alone marked the species. 



When we drove through the pine barrens and saw the 

 masses of Ptcris aquilina caudata we wished that all fern lovers 

 could see the sight. The fronds tower up and droop over the 

 bushes of acacia, like giant ostrich feathers, and were inter- 

 laced with the orange coils of the dodder. The bright, glossy 

 green of the leaf, and the polished, straw-colored stems are far 

 more beautiful than our dull gray northern plant. It loses here 

 and in Florida its ternate character. There are six to eight 

 branches on each side of the rachis, which are divided and sub- 

 divided. The ultimate pinnules are slender and long, particularly 

 at the end of the branch. Farther away from the road the ground 

 is carpeted with lower Pteris, dotted with the pretty pink spires 

 of Blctia purpurea. Pteris aquilina caudata is found nowhere but 

 in the pine barrens, and the finest specimens of Anemia adianti- 

 folia are found there also. 



