260 



orchards have to be watered continually, and this irrigation is the most 

 difficult and the most laborious part of the work in connection with 

 orange growing, inasmuch as the water has to be drawn by means of 

 more or less primitive water-wheels from wells dug in the gardens 90 

 feet and even sometimes 100 feet deep." 



FERNS : SYNOPTICAL LIST— XLII. 



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

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

 Demerara. 



Genus XXYII. Nephrolepis, Schott 



Sori reniform or roundish ; receptacle punctiform, terminal on the 

 anterior veinlets, uniserial, and medial or intra or submarginal ; in- 

 volucres superior, scale-like, reniform or reniform -orbicular, attached by 

 the sinus and free around the edges ; fronds simply pinnate ; pinnae 

 oblong or linear-oblong, deciduous ; veins not reaching the margins, 

 free, forked, with clavate apices, which on the upper surface are often 

 covered by cretaceous scales ; rootstock freely stoloniferous, with wiry 

 flexuose roots, which in some species, beneath the soil, bear abundant, 

 small, potato-like tubers. 



There are eight to a dozen or so variable species in this genus ; the 

 restricted number of the species however being fully made up for by 

 the multiplicity of the individuals. It is what is called a natural 

 genus, — that is the several species have a general aspect in common 

 which is unmistakable, whether the plants be in fruit or not. In the 

 technical characters of the fructification the genus does not differ much 

 from Nephr odium their peculiar likeness of habit and general aspect 

 being in fact the principal generic characteristics. All prefer open 

 sunny situations, occupying strong open ground, rocks and banks, as- 

 cending the bases of trees, aloft on their branches, with bromeliads and 

 other plants, and in the crowns of certain palms. The sori are either 

 oblique or transverse with the veins that bear them. 



a. — Pinnae inequilateral, dimidiate-cordate at the base. 

 b. Fronds — 1-2 in. w. 1. N. pectinata, Schott. 



Fronds 2-4 in. w. 2. N. sesquipedale, Jenm. 



a, a. — Pinnae equilateral, or fully cordate at the base. 

 b. b. Fronds — 1-2 in. w. 3. N. cordifolia, Presl. 



b. b. b. Fronds— 3-8 in. w. 4. N. exaltata, Schott. 



5. N. biserrata, Schott. 



1. N. pectinata, Schott.— Stipites tufted, hardly any to 3-4 in. 1. light 

 brown or straw coloured, with spreading flexuose, wiry like-coloured 

 stolons superficial on the surface around, roots devoid of tubers ; fronds 

 erect, a span to 18 in 1. J-lf in. w. naked, light green, thin ; pinnae ob- 

 long, sessile articulate, often cretaceous dotted. J-f in. L 2-3 li. w. 

 dentate, rounded, superior base expanded into a deltoid auricle, inferior 

 shortly cut away to the pedicel ; rachises nearly or quite naked, slender, 

 channeled, light brown or stramineous; veins forked; sori submar- 

 ginal, transverse ; broadly reniform ; involucres pale, shield-like, per- 

 sistent. Abounding from 2,000 ft. altitude upwards on banks, open 

 stony areas, and in coffee fields, universially plentiful in the mid-region, 

 gver the greater part of the open higher ground of the oolony, Cren- 



