66 



FERNS : SYNOPTICAL LIST — XXXIJi. 



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

 maica. By Gr. S. Jenman, Superintendent Botanical Gardens, 

 Demerara. 



13. Nephr odium resino-f&tidum, Hook — Rootstock stout, erect, 

 often a span or more high ; stipites caespitose, strong, erect, numerous, 

 \-2 ft. 1. channelled, dark-coloured fibrillose and dirty- paleaceous in- 

 creasingly downwards, and thickly coated in growth with mucous 

 slime; frords erect, bipinnatifid, 2-4 ft. 1. f-l| ft. w., subcoriaceous, 

 viscid throughout but otherwise naked, dark green above ; more or less 

 suddenly reduced at the base, passing through distant dwindling auri- 

 cles in mere muricate glands, which often reach nearly to the base of 

 the stipites ; pinnae close above, more or less distant below, numerous, 

 spreading, nearly horizontally, opposite or alternate, 5-9 in. 1. f-1 in. 

 w., with a muricate gland at the base beneath, sessile and tapering out- 

 wards to the finely acuminate and serrate-entire point ; cut nearly to 

 the costae into close blunt or acute entire subfalcate segments with in- 

 volute edges which enclose the sori, 4-6 li. 1. 1-1^ li- w. at the rather 

 dilated and connected bases, lowest pair largest but also entire ; rachis 

 strong, sub-angular and channelled, stramineous, puberulous, with a 

 few scattered fibrillae below ; veins pellucid, simple, close, 12-16 to a 

 side ; sori copius, nearer the involute margin which covers it ; involu- 

 cres pale, naked, fugacious. 



Infrequent on banks and in, often, wet open places from 4,000-5,000 

 ft altitude. A large coarse species resembling Sprengellii in outline 

 and habit, but more rigid, and distinguished by the revolute edges, 

 densely viscid fronds, and mucous stipites and caudex. In a growing 

 state it has a delicious peach perfume, though in the Ecuador plant 

 this scent is described as offensively resinous. The segments are really 

 blunt or rounded, but the edges being folded they appear acute-pointed. 

 The sori are at length confluent, and under the inflexed margins, the 

 segments resemble some of the Cheilanthes. The pinnae taper very 

 gradually from the base to the point. First discovered on the main- 

 land — Ecuador and Bolivia. 



14. N. Jenmani, Baker. — Rootstock stout, erect, often several 

 inches high ; stipites caespitose, erect, strong, 3-8 in. L, channelled, 

 with a few deciduous dark-brown scales at the base ; fronds erect, bi- 

 pinnatifid, ovate-lanceolate, 2-4 ft. 1. f-l£ ft. w., gradually reduced 

 from the middle to both apex and base, chartaceous, pellucid- dotted, 

 surface naked, the costae above deciduously ciliate, dark clear green on 

 the upperside, the under paler ; rachis strong, channelled, sub-angular, 

 bright pale or chestnut brown ; pinnae opposite or alternate, contiguous, 

 or subdistant below, very numerous, spreading at a wide angle, 6-9 in. 

 1. 1-1J in. w., sessile, the apex finely serrate-acuminate, pinnatifid to 

 within a line of the costae, the lower one very gradually reduced to less 

 than an inch 1., segments very numerous, flat, nearly straight, rounded, 

 J-jths in. 1. 1J-2 li. b. above the rather dilated confluent bases close or 

 with a more or less open sinus between them, basal pair enlarged, and 

 often lobed or pinnatifid in the larger fronds, margins entire or crenulate ; 

 pale or chestnut brown ; veins simple, 8-12 to a side ; sori copious, medial ; 

 involucres as large, pale, naked. — Journ. Bot. 1877, vol. 5, p. 263. 



Common at 5,000-6,000 ft., altitude near streams and in wet places ; 



