5 



BAY RUM. 



The correspondent in Dominion, Mr. H. F. Green, who sent me information about the manufacture 

 of Bay Rum published in Bulletin No. 26, adds a further note : — 



" The dried leaves of Pimento, acris are shipped in large quantities from here to New York. 

 They are generally sent away iu large bales, weighing some 200 lbs. each." 



GINGER. 



Cultivation and Curing in Jamaica. 



A grower of ginger near Christiana gives some interesting details on this subject, for which I 

 am indebted to Mr. Geo. Douet : — 



" With regard to yield per acre, it depends entirely on the nature of the soil, whether it is suited 

 for ginger or not, and how it is planted and cured, and whether the seasons are favourable. The 

 average for one acre would be from 10 to 15 hundred p Hinds, that is, when it is dried, perfectly cured 

 and fit for market. A good crop may yield as much as 20 hundred pounds. 



As long as the ginger, when dug up is kept from the sun, it need not be peeled for 2 or 3 days. 



After peeling for the day, put them to soak in plenty of water over night In the morning, 

 wash, clean, and weigh. Put on mats, turn over carefully each piece at midday for six or eight days 

 until cured. As sun goes down, take them in. Do not let them get wet or they will mildew. 



The trouble of curing is not much, for each peeler washes her own share, and helps to lay them 

 out. One person can easily attend to 7 or 8 peelers, and do odd jobs besides. 



It takes 3 lbs. of green ginger to make 1 lb. of dry." 



A Correction. — In Bulletin No. 26, in article on Ginger, page 6, fourth last line, omit word 

 " water." 



FERNS : SYNOPTICAL LIST.— VIII. 



Synoptical List, icith descriptions, of the Ferns and Fern- Allies of Jamaica by G. 8. Jenman, Superin" 



tendent, Botanical Gardens, Demerara (continued) . 



8. Cyathea Tussacii, Desv. — Stem very stout.,- attaining 20-25 ft. high, prickly and rough with ragged 

 scars ; stipites stout ; densely armedwith strong curved sharp spines, l|-3^ ft. L greyish-scurfy clothed 

 above with long attenuated very narrow rather fibrillose scales ; fronds large, tripinnate, about 8. ft. 1. 

 and 4 ft. w. very coriaceous and rigid, dark dull green abjve, rather glaucous beneath, rachis stout, 

 freely asperous prickly beneath, and with the costae, which are also asperous, grey fibrillose and scurfy : 

 pinnae opposite or nearly so, 1^-2 ft. 1. 6-8 in. w. usually not quite sessile, pinnulae close, sessile, ser- 

 rate-acuminate, about 4 in. 1. and § in. w. fully pinnate at the base, almost as deeply pinnatifid 

 above, shortly acuminate ; segments close, curved or subfalcate, acute or bluntish, about 5 li. 1, 1-1^ li. 

 w.; the margins even and incurved when dry ; veins once forked near the base ; sori at the forking of 

 the one to three lower veins, close against the costules ; involucres cupshaped, very thin and sometimes 

 shrivelling. 



Var. magnifolia. — Fronds much larger, chartaceous, vestiture much less, pinnae 2£ ft. 1. 10 in. w. 

 pinnulae 5 in. 1. 1 in. w. rather more tapering, deeply serrated at the apex; segments flatter, broader, 

 subcrenulate in the outer part, pale grey beneath ; veins once or twice forked ; sori smaller, sparser, 

 greyish. 



Very abundant in forests from 4,000-6,000 ft. alt., chiefly in damp gloomy ravines. A large, very 

 robust species, perhaps the most robust of all, of grisly aspjct, the large flatly spreading head of a dark 

 dull colour. The coating of grey scurf gives the vascular parts the aspect of being powdered, over 

 which are the grey scales, which vary in form in the different parts. This vestiture readily distin- 

 guishes it.* In some instances, as mentioned under concinna, late in the resting season, about May or 

 June, the fronds all drop away, leaving the bare trunk. When vegetation begins again, a whorl is 

 thrown up together. 



9. C. insignis. Eat. — Stem stout, reaching 20 ft. or more high, densely clothed at the top with 

 matted pale brown very narrow scales ; stipites spreading, stout, asperous but quite devoid of prickles, 

 similarly clothed to the trunk ; fronds forming a rather flat head, ample, tripinate, 7-8 ft. 1. ft. 

 w. subcoriaceous, dark green above, glaucous beneath ; rachis strong, somewhat scurfy scaly, dark 

 greyish brown, castas slightly rusty tomeutose above, deciduously scurfy beneath, costulae and ribs 

 beneath with minute stellated scales, surfaces otherwise naked ; pinnae approximate, 1£-2| ft. 1. 6-8 in. 

 w. nearly sessile, drooping at the ends ; pinulse close, very numerous, sessile, acuminate, the point 

 rather long and subentire or serrate, fully pinnate at the bise, above this very deeply pinatifid, 3-4 in. 

 1. in. w. ; segments curved or subfalcate, acute or obtuse, 4-6 li. 1. li. w. even or creaulate edged, 

 the basal pair, which are usually enlarged, often lobe I or pinnatifid, and overlapping the costae : veins 

 once or twice forked below the middle, pellucid : sori copious inserted ne ir the forking, reacking from 

 the base to the top of the segment and filling up the space between the midrib and recurved edges : 

 involucres thin glaucous, hemispherical, bursting irregularly from the top, —C. princeps, J. Smith. 



Plentiful in situations at 4.000-5,000 ft. alt. but not generally diffused, gathered on the slopes of 

 Catherine's Peak and of Blue Mountain Peak and at several intervening places, where it is commou 

 and as a rule gregarious, growing both in shade and out. A particularly fiue plant, the stem 6 in. 



* C. Imrayana, Hook., of Dominica, mistakingly referred by the Author later to this species, has hemispherical in- 

 volucres, quite correctly shown in Sp. Fil. Vol. I., t. 9. B. 



