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FERNS: SYNOPTICAL LIST— XL. 



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

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

 Demerara. 



50. Nephr odium asplenioides, Baker — -Rootstock erect, often some 

 inches high, stoutish, the crown densely scaly ; stipites caespitose, nu- 

 merous, erecto-spreading, 3-8 in. 1., slightly brown-scaly at the very 

 base ; fronds oblong-lanceolate, 1-1 J ft. L, 3-5 in. w., not reduced at the 

 base, pinnate, the apex pinnatifid ; chartaceous, pellucid when fresh; 

 naked or puberulous, rather dull or greyish-green ; rachis slender, grey- 

 ish, and with costae and ribs slightly ciliate and puberulous ; pinna* nu- 

 merous, spreading nearly horizontally, or rather up-curved, usually 

 shortly apart, or at the base subdistant subcordate and slightly stipitate, 

 2-2f in. 1., about \ in. b., the apex blunt and entire, below this cut 

 into shallow rounded marginal lobes, the lowest pair rather enlarged, 

 which are li. b.. the upper pinnae generally subentire ; veins pinnate 

 in the lobes, 3-6 to a side, branches simple, lowest opposite pair unit- 

 ing and sending a vein to the sinus where the opposite next pair meet : 

 sori small, dorsal, nearer the midrib ; involucres minute, ciliate, early 

 obliterated. — PI. Fil. t. 102. Polypodium, Swartz. Aspidium, 

 Griseb. 



a. var. tenera. — Stipites as long but rather more slender, fronds 

 about half as long, nearly as w., pinnae as wide, sometimes wider, and 

 usually more deeply lobed, and broader generally above than at the 

 base. The second pair of veins not opposite, one or both entering the 

 margin above the sinus ; involucres evident, ciliate — Goniopteri* 

 tenera, Fee. Fil. Ant. t. 15. fig. 3. 



b. var. gracilis.—^ Fronds narrower, the upper part elongated, and 

 only pinnatifid, the lower t pinnae reduced and becoming gradually more 

 distant downwards, involucres evident, ciliate. — Goniopteris gracilis, 

 Moore et Houlet. Fee, Fil. Ant. t. 15. fig. 2. 



Common, and widely spread through the island in one state or ano- 

 ther between 2,000 and 6,000 ft. altitude, on open or shady banks. A 

 much larger and stronger plant than its sub-species reptans, with 

 erect-spreading fronds, never extending and radicant at the apex. 

 The involucres are more obvious in some of the forms than in others, 

 but in nearly all they disappear with age. 



a. — grows plentifully on the side banks on the way from Kingston 

 to Bath and elsewhere. With this I include all the forms possessing 

 the same shape of frond as the type, except that they are shorter and 

 have fewer pinnae, though they vary one from the other in texture, 

 vestiture and other minor characters, b in its generally narrower form, 

 and elongated tapering simply pinnatifid upper half or third of the 

 frond, approaches some of the larger forms of reptans but it is, so far 

 as I have observed, never radicant, and this is the only permanent dis- 

 tinction between the type and sub-species, and upon it the numerous 

 intermediate forms, too variable to define as varieties, fall to one or 

 the other group. But, possibly, even this distinction is not tenable. 



1. Sub-sp. sclerophyllum. — Fronds larger than in the type, 1J-2 

 ft. 1. and 6 in. w., not narrowed at the base, elongate lanceolate, the up- 

 per part tapering or long-tapering, acuminate ; pinnae mostly opposite 



