188 



to be of " dry" cane. The recent Dodds reports and the last Demerara 

 report record seedling plots with remarkably high yields of sugar per 

 acre due to a high saccharine richness as well as high tonnage. These 

 seedling varieties shew high promise of solving the problem before us. 



The most planters now can do is to aid in disseminating information 

 as to the results of this and next year's reaping, and to make use of the 

 broad conclusions already arrived at until our knowledge is more com- 

 plete. 



FERNS: SYNOPTICAL LIST— XXXIX. 



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

 maica. By G. S. Jenman, Superintendent, Botanical Garden, 

 Demerara. 



46. Nephr odium usitatum, Jenm. — Rootstoek stout, erect, often a spun 

 or more high, densely paleaceous with dark dull brown scales ; stipites 

 caespitose, numerous, erect, 9-15 in. L, channelled, dark and clothed 

 below like the caudex ; fronds erecto-spreading 1 J-2J ft. 1. 9-12 in. w., 

 the apex pinnatifid and passing through mere lobes to the acuminate 

 serrato-attenuated point ; thinly chartaceous, pellucid, dark green and 

 glossy above and naked, pale beneath and slightly ciliate on the ribs 

 and somewhat grayish from copious scattered minute tuberculae ; pin- 

 nae numerous, distinct, spreading nearly or quite horizontally, 4-7 in. 1. 

 |ths-l in. w., the lower 1-2 pair little or hardly reduced and sometimes 

 narrowed at the base, upper ones truncate and sessile, widest rather at 

 the base, or more often uniform in width the greater part of iheir 

 length, passing into the finely acuminate serrato-entire point ; cut a third 

 or rather more to the costae into shallow broadly rounded lobes 2-3 li. w. ; 

 margins scariose, crenulate-entire ; veins pellucid, simple, 4-8 to a side, 

 the lowest pair uniting and sending a branch to the sinus where the 

 next pair meet ; sori medial or nearer the midrib ; involucres minute 

 and early obliterated. 31. Cat. p. 20. Hist. p. 90. t. 48. fig. 2. Herb. 



Common in the damp woods among the lower hills, gathered in St. 

 Andrew, St. Mary and Clarendon parishes. The pinnae of barren 

 fronds are twice as wide as those of fertile, and closer together. The 

 sori are often confined to the outer part of the pinnae, and to the lobes, 

 as in the preceding species, to which it has nearest affinity, but from 

 which the different scales of the caudex and stipes, narrow pinnae, shal- 

 lower lobes, obscure involucr s and other characters, abundantly mark 

 it. The involucres are only observable in a young state of the sori. 

 In the narrow pinnaed fronds the lobes are twice as wide as deep ; in 

 the wider they are about equal each way. The texture is often mem- 

 branous. Generally found near streams. 



47. N. venustum, J. Sm. — Rootstoek stout erect, often several 

 inches high, the crown densely clothed with large chestnut ovate-acu 

 minute scales ; stipit-s erect, 1 J- 2 ft. L, clothed at the base like the 

 rootstoek, not or slightly channelled, brown ; fronds 2-3 ft. 1. 1-Jrd ft. 

 w., the apex pinnatifid ; chartaceous, pellucid ; naked or slightly ciliate 

 on the ribs and edges, dark-green above and glossy, paler beneath ; 

 brown, puberulous, as are the paler costae : pinnae numerous, spreading 

 or erect-spreading, 5-9 in. 1. in. w , the lowest as large, or 1-3 

 pairs reduced, and stipitate or not, distant or subdistant, broadest at 



