ONIONS. 



Mr. C. L. Walker has been most successful in growing Onions at Ballards Valley, St. Mary, some 

 of the bulbs weighing as much as lib. 



The seed was "Pale Red Bermuda," purchased from Mr. Ed. D. Kinkead (Kingston). 



Mr. Walker writes : — u I sowed Is. worth of onion seed the weather being very heavy at the 

 time I suppose one half was washed away. No account was kept of the weight harvested but I esti- 

 mate that when all have been taken up 3 beds 14x4, 14x3, and 15x12, will yield say 200 lbs. To date 

 a great many are not yet fit, this I think is from being planted too thick and were not thinned enough 1 

 Last year the transplanted onions did as well as these. 



" I planted the seed without paying much attention to the cultivation of them, the beds were not 

 highly manured, just a small portion of stable manure being used as the soil is rich." 



FERNS : SYNOPTICAL LIST.— IX. 



Synoptical List, with description, of the Ferni and Fern-Allies of Jamaica, by G. S. Jenman, Su- 

 perintendent Botanical Gardens, Demerara, ( Continued). 

 Tribe V. Adiantew. 



Sori marginal ; linear, oblong, reniform or roundish, inserted on the innerside of the reflexed 

 cartilaginous margin, which forms the involucre. 



The characteristic feature of this tribe is found in the absence of a special involucre, the sori being 

 borne on the innerside of the changed cartilaginous reflexed margin, which is folded back against the 

 underside of the leaflets, thus reversing while folded the general direction of the sporangia in relation 

 to the surface of the fronds. The members too, though varying greatly, possess in common a strong 

 family likeness, and form one of the most natural and best marked tribes in the order. 



Genius X. Adiantum, Linn Only genus. Characters as in the Tribe. 

 This genus is well known as comprising the popular and commercially valuable maiden hair ferns, 

 a term applied to all the species of the Capillus-veneris type, with which species it first originated. 

 They have usually polished black chestnut stems and rachises, with more or less dimidiate, flabellate 

 or equilateral leaflets, which have no central rib. As in Lindsay a, where the leaflets are dimidiate, 

 i. e., apparently half cut away, the fructification is only along the superior, and sometimes the outer 

 margin. The genus occupies both shady and open situations equally, abounding most at low altitudes, 

 ascending from sea level, but gradually decreasing in the higher ranges, up to 3,000 or 3,500 ft. alt., 

 where its appearance terminates. 



1. A. deltoideum, Swartz. 



2. A. lucidum, Swartz. 



3. A. icilsoni, Hook. 



4. A. macrophyllum, Swartz. 



aa. Fronds pinnate or bipinnate, leaflets subdimidiate or dimidiate, sori uninterrupted. 



5. A. Kendalii, Jenm. 



6. A. villosum, Linn. 



7. A. pulverulentum, Linn. 



(see also A. cristatum and A. pyramidale.) 

 aaa, Fronds pinnate or bipinnate, leaflets unequal-sided or the smaller subdimidiate ; sori inter- 

 rupted, borne on the opposite margins. 



8. A. Kaulfussii, Kunze. 



9. A. obliquum, Willd. 



10. A. intermedium, Swartz. 



aaaa. Fronds bipinnate, leaflets dimidiate; sori interrupted, running along the upper margin and 

 generally round the outer. 



11. A. triangulatum, Hook. 



12. A. hirtnm, Klotzsch.— Rootstock shortly repent, scaly; stipites approximate, erect, 



£-1 ft. 1. slender, deciduously rusty tomentose ; fronds bipinnate, composed of 2-7 

 pairs of spreading contiguous lateral pinnre 3 6 in. 1. and a similar terminal one, 

 chartaceous, dark-green above rather glaucous beneath, rachis and costao freely 

 hairy, pinnuhe ciliate Or naked, close, 1-2 dozen to a side, the outer linear- oblong, 

 dimidiate, 5-6 li. 1. H-2 li. br. the lower 'reduced and cuneate-flabellatc, barren 

 evenly serrated ; veins forked, radial, sori minute, roundish or reniform, conti- 

 guous.— Hook Sp. Fil. vol. 2 1. 82, A. 



Gathered a few years ago by V. P Parkhurst, locality not recorded. A widely 

 spread and quite characteristic species, of which two forms are prevalent in Trinidad 

 the Guianas and Brazil in one of which scattered hairs occur on the disk of the leaf- 

 lets, while in the other they are absent. The sori are very small and-close, from 

 10-20 to a segment. It is the smallest species of this section. 



13. A, fructuosum, Spreng. 



14. A. obtusion, Desv. 



15. A. tetraphyllum, Willd. 



