260 



serted, the superior base more roin 'led andciliate, not imbricated on tbe 

 rachis, firm in substance and stiffisb, 1-1 J li.l. ; minor leaves J to J as 

 lonp: as the major, sharply pointed; spikes J-J in. 1., tetragonal, J li. 

 w., bracts imbricating, keeled, acute. — Baker, Fera Al. p. 61. Lyoopo- 

 dium, Swartz. 



Gathered b}^ Swartz in Jamaica, but not since his day. 



11. S. cuspidata, Link. — Stems, erect, rigid, terete, \-\ ft. 1., 1 li. 

 thick, sometimes branched, generally with few or several abortive 

 spurlike buds 1-2 li. 1 along the sides, clothed throughout with im- 

 bricating ciliate-edged, clasping leaves, which are 3-4 serial and all of 

 one kind; fronds erect, stiff, light green, subovate or ovate-deltoid, 

 usually broadest at the base and narrowed upwards, 3-5 in. each w., 

 repeatedly pinnate ; the branches very dense and close and li. w. 

 over the leaves ; major leaves very densely imbricating, ovate-acumin- 

 ate, I li, 1. J-f li. w., the inner (or upper) margin ciliate ; minor leaves 

 about half the size, spinulose-pointed, faintly denHculate towards the 

 point, inequilateral, the double series imbricatir g one with another ; 

 spikes very numerous, occupying all the branches, densely 4-stichous, 

 J-^ in. 1. \ li. w., bracts faintly ciliate on the margins ; sporangia very 

 minute. — Baker, Fern. Al. p 89. 



Infrequent on open banks and waysides in tbe Port Royal mountains 

 at 2,000-4,000 ft., altitude, having stiff,erect stems, with a spreading 

 usually deltoid frond at the top, very dense la all its parts. The pin- 

 nae more or less over- lap, and the branchlets are rather concave on the 

 uppcrside and convex or almost keeled on the und t. Throughout 

 the leaves are so very densely imbricated that no part of the stems or 

 rachises is visible. The spikes are long, square-edged, the sides rather 

 concave. 



Genus II. laoetes, Linn. 



Sporangia contained in the axils of the leaves, partly immersed in 

 the interior of the base, the macrosporangia in the inferior and micros- 

 porangia in the superior ones. Microspores spherical ; microspores 3- 

 gon&l ; leaves herbaceous, from a few inches to a foot or more high, 

 springing in a dense rosette from a thickened cor m -like rootstock, 

 acaulescent, the expanded base clasping, tapering thence upwards to the 

 acuminate, often convolute point. These, the Quill worts of Britain, are 

 herbaceous bog or aquatic plants, with numerous leaves, appressed 

 together at their expanded clasping ba=?es, from whence they taper 

 rapidh^ to the much reduced point, the height varyin^^ with the 

 different species, forming a dense upri jht cluster cr open rosette. The 

 sporangia are concealed in the claspiagba es, and must be sought for by 

 removing the leaves. I have seen no J amaica species, but it is possi- 

 ble the genus may be represented in the higher regions as it is in the 

 countries around for to the inexperienced the plant might be passed as 

 small tufts or aquatic ridge. The Cuban species in /. cuhana, Englm., 

 which has a trilobed rootstock, few or numerous thinly grass-like, 

 acuminate, filiform leaves, reaching from a few to several in. 1., the 

 base delated and clasping with relatively small sporangia macrospores 

 and microspores. Baker, Fern AL p. 133. 



