6 



been very extensive, and yet they have been such as to tax the powers of the present personnel. Upon 

 the arrival of the two new functionaries to be set apart exclusively for this kind of work the force will 

 be strong enough to meet fully all such demands. 



Every one interested in natural history knows that Zoology owes, a great part of its recent rapid 

 development to the founding of various Zoological " Stations" (establishments in places where the species 

 to be studied occur naturally.) Of still greater importance in the development of the scienoe of 

 botany, are such great botanical " Stations" as this one at Buitenzorg, destined to be in the near future." 



It is interesting to compare what is said of these gardens by Dr. Trimen, Director of Botanic 

 Gardens in Ceylon. He, visited them in 1891, and in his Report he states his experience as follows : — 



"The Dutch botanical establishment at Buitenzorg is maintained entirely on a scientific basis. 



" The Director has the control of all the six departments into which the institution is divided, as 

 follows : — 1, the Herbarium, Library and Museum ; 2, the Botanical Laboratory ; 3, the Experimental 

 Garden and Laboratory for Agricultural Chemistry ; 4, the Pharmacological Laboratory ; 5, the Botanic 

 Gardens ; 6, the Photographic Institution. Each of these departments is under the immediate man- 

 agement of a highly trained scientific or technical, chief from Holland, and most of these have also an 

 assistant. There is thus a very large staff of Europeans. The Laboratories, Library, &c. are completely 

 stocked, and kept fully up to the time, and everything is provided for close investigation and original 

 research in all branches of botanical study. Many students are thus attracted from Europe, and the 

 Laboratories afford accommodation for a considerable number of workers. A valuable serial publica-, 

 tion, the " Annales du Jardin Buitenzorg," is issued at intervals, devoted to scientific botany, and 

 another one, " Teijsmanma," occupied with economic and garden subjects. 



" The Botanic Gardens themselves at Buitenzorg occupy between 60 and 70 acres, at an elevation 

 of about 800 feet, with a fine soil and abundant water, and are well protected by a high iron railing . 

 and a barbed wire fence. Nearly the whole is occupied by a classified arboretum, each Natural Order 

 being isolated by a road or path. The collection is extremely rich, and every species is elaborately 

 labelled with upright labels made of the very hard wood of Eusid trotyl on, which is never attacked by 

 termites. The whole is now much too crowded, and cannot be said to be of much beauty but is of 

 course extremely convenient for scientific study. Connected with Buitenzorg is a small Hill-garden at 

 Tijbodas, 4,700 feet, also under a European Superintendent, where is also a house for the Director and 

 a Laboratory and accommodation for four students. 



" The Experimental Garden (Cultuur-tuin) is about two miles from the main, garden, and is 200 

 acres in extent, but is not all at present occupied. It is laid out in square plots, each devoted to one 

 product ; large labels at each corner give the name, date of sowing, or planting, and other information. 

 Here are very many plants of great interest. Though a large distribution of seeds and plants is made 

 to planters and others, no charge is made for anything. 



" On the whole, I was filled with surprise and admiration at the completeness of Buitenzorg as a 

 centre for botanical work ; the only weak side seemed to be the Herbarium; which is by no means kept 

 up on a par with the rest of the means of study." 



FERNS : SYNOPTICAL LIST.— X. 



Synoptical Lid, with description, of tlie Ferns and Fern- Allien of Jamaica, hy G. 8. Jen/nan, Superin 



tendent Botanical Gardens, Dcmerara, ( continued). 



5. Adiantum Kendalii, Jenm. — Stipites £ ~ H ft. 1. polished, black, subtufted from a shortly repent 

 fasciculate finely scaly, rootstock ; fronds firm, naked, paler green beneath, ^ - 1 ft. 1. simply pinnate, or 

 with one to several pair of short, equally developed, lateral pinnate branches at the base ; segments 

 of the terminal pinnate portion subdimidiate ; the upper and lower margin parallel in the superior ones, 

 but the former longer, - 1^ in. 1. ^ - £ in. w. the inferior ones shornboidal or subdeltoid, those of 

 the basal branches smaller and quite dimidiate oblong or subfalcate, the terminal large and rather 

 elongate-aouminate ; veins fine and close, repeatedly forked free ; sori continuous along the upper mar- 

 gin, and in the terminal simply pinnate portion also down the oblique outer edge, the barren points 

 faintly denticulate. — Sloane t. 55 fig. 2, 



Infrequent, but plentiful where found, in the eastern parishes, gathered on woodland slopes about 

 a quarter mile on the Annotto Bay side of Castleton Gardens, and by Sloane at Archers wood and other 

 inland woody parts of tho island. Sloane's specimen is a fragment, with most of the segments removed 

 but it shows the bipinnate state at the base. The top only where it is perfect, was figured. The figure 

 is quoted by Grisebach for A. luoidum, fr wartz. Mr. Baker has regarded it as a bipinnate var. of 

 macrophy/h'M, but its more devoloped states show that it belongs to the t illoctim group of dimidiate 

 species. Mr. Hart gathered a form of much stiffer texture striated surface and interrupted sori. It is 

 named after a former Superintendent of Castleton Gardens who next found it 185 years after Sloano. 



6. A. villomm, Linn. — Rootstock strong repent, fasciculate, densely scaly, stipes strong, tetrago- 

 nal, 1-2 ft. 1. channolled, polished, black, deciduously rusty-furfuraceous ; fronds bipinnate, f-1^ ft. 

 each way, firm, glabrous, both sides dark green, upper glossy ; pinna) spreading, 3 to a side, and a 

 similar long-terminal one |-l ft. 1. 1^-2 in. w. ; sogments contiguous, very numerous, $-1 in. 1. 2£-l| 

 li. w. dimidiate or subdimidiate, margins straight, upper and lower parallel, the former longer forming 

 an acute or bluntish point with the oblique outer one, denticulate when barren, rachis and costa) rusty- 

 pubescent ; veins fine, repeatedly forked, free ; sori along the upper and down the outer margins where 

 it terminates in a slight spiir, continuous or rarely disconnected by a slight projection in the line of 

 the upper margin. 



Var. A. oblique-truncatum, Fee\ — Margins of segments undulated, and sori interrupted thereby. — 

 Fil. Ant. t. 7. fig. 3. 



