5 



PLANTS IN FLOWER IN CASTLETON GARDEN.— III. 



Cinnanomum zeylanioum. — The Cinnamon Tree though small is singularly beautiful, being one mass of 

 shining foliage. Jt is a native of Ceylon, where one variety grows in the forests even up to an elevation of 

 8,000 feet. 



Cinnamon and Cassia are species which were known in the most remote times and were regarded as 

 among the most costly of aroraatics. The Pharmacographia quotes the offering much by Seleucus II. King of 

 Syria, to the temple of Apollo at Miletus, B.C. 2 A3 as consisting chiefly of vessels of gold and silver and 

 olibanum, myrrh, costus, including also two pounds of Cassia and the same quantity of Cinnamon. After 

 the Portugese had discovered the new route to India, by the Cape of Good Hope, they permanently occupied 

 Ceylon in 1536, chiefly for the sake of the Cinnamon. Even twenty years 1 iter it was rare, if we may judge 

 from the fact that it figures among the New Year's gifts to Philip and Mary (1556-57), and to Queen Elizabeth 

 (1561-62). 



Under cultivation, the Cinnamon tree is cut low down and only 1 or 5 shoots allowed to spring up. 

 When these are about 2 years old and begin to turn brown, they are cut and the peel carefully separated into 

 " quills." The outer bark is scraped off; and the quills, placed one inside the other, form the Cinnamon of 

 commerce. (See Bulletin 26). 



Cananga odorata. — The Ilang-Ilang Tree of Burma and Java, is a large tree with sweet-scented flowers. 

 An otto prepared from the fl >wers is worth from 18s. to 22s. per ounce. Maccassar Hair Oil is said to be a 

 solution of llang in Coco-nut oil. 



A tree planted in Hope Gardens in 1886, attained in 6 years a height of 4.6 feet, with a girth of 38 

 inches at 3 feet above the ground. 



Gordonia an om a la is a handsome shrub with large white flowers, nearly related to the cultivated Ca- 

 mellia and to the Tea Plant. It is a native of Hong Kong, and flowers also at the Hill Garden at an eleva- 

 tion of 5,000 ft. 



FERNS: SYNOPTICAL LIST.— XIV. 



Synoptical List, with descriptions, of the Ferns and Fern Allies of Jamaica, by G. S. Jenman, Superintendent 

 Botanical Gardens, Demerara, (continued from Bulletin No. 36.) 

 Genus XIII. Cheilanthes, Swartz. 

 Sori marginal, terminal on the veins, dot-like in form, more or less apart and remaining permanently 

 isolated, with similarly isolated, scale-like, involucres covering a single sorus, or close together and even- 

 tually confluent, with more or less continuous involucres covering few or several sori ; fronds usually small, 

 veins free. 



A small genus, widely dispersed over the island, and extending from sea level up to 5,000 or 6,000 ft. 

 alt., occupying both open and shady situations but chiefly the former. In the separation or contiguity of the 

 sori, and consequent form of the involucre, the members of the genus fall into two natural divisions. 



a. Sori apart, permanently isolated, each possessing a separate scale-like, subreniform involucre. — Adian- 

 top$is, Fee. 



1. C. radiata, E. Br. 



2. C. pauperctua, Mett. 



3. G. pedata, A. Br. 



4. C. Beesii, Jenm. 



aa. Sori close, confluent at length, few or several together covered by the indexed involucres. — Eu- 

 cheilanthes. 



5. O. micromera, Link. 



6. C. microphylla, Swartz. 



7. C. marginata, Hook. 



8. C. tomentosa, Link. 



1. C. radiata, R. Br. — Bootstock small, fibrous, upright, the crown scaly ; stipites tufted, erect, slender, 

 stiff, polished chestnut or blackish, often flexuose, f-1 J ft. 1. ; fronds bipinuate, firm, dark green, naked, 

 pedatiform, composed of 7-9 tapering pinnae, horizontally radiating like out-spread fingers from the summit 

 of the stipites, varying in size, the central which is ^— f ft. 1. and f-1 in. w. rather the longest, those on 

 either hand gradually smaller, the inner pair very much reduced, costae slender, channelled and scariose 

 margined; segments very numerous even — or slightly serrulate —margined, horizontal, close, linear — oblong, 

 3-5 li. L 1^— "2 li. w. apex rounded or acute, base truncate sessile, and slightly auricled on the superior side 

 inferior reduced, the basal ones | in. distant, and situated in the axils, forming a frill to the top of the 

 stipites ; veins oblique, pinnate, branches simple, forked in the basal auricle ; sori contiguous, serial, forming 

 a bead-like line around both the base and lateral margins; involucres thin, subreniform — Plum. Fil.pl. 

 100. Adiantum, Linn. Hypolepis, Hook. Sp. Fil. Vol. 2. t. 91. a. 



Infrequent in distribution, but common where found, through most of the island, under the shade 

 of forest, on stony ground or rocks, up to 1,500 ft. alt. The segments are eventually deciduous, the fronds 

 consisting only of the naked c> stulae, radiating from an excentric axis at the top ot the stipites. It was first 

 gathered by Sloane in " woods in the north side of the Island by the Old Town of Sevilla." 



2. C. paupercula, Mett. — Rootstock small, erect, fibrous, the crown scaly ; stipites tufted, slender, erect, 



polished chestnut or black, naked, fronds bi-tri-pinnate, 5-9 in. I. 3-5 in w. firm, dark green, naked, ovate 



or deltoid-lanceolate, broadest or not at the base, rachis and costae channelled, very slender, polished and 

 coloured like the stipites ; pinnae apart or subdistant, few or several, alternate, spreading, the lowest one or 

 two pair sometimes branched at the base on the inferior side, those above these simply pinnate, and gradually 

 reduced passing into the similar, pinnate terminal part, segments apart or contiguous, articulate, on minute 

 black pedicels, ovate-oblong, 2-3 li. L 1J-2 li. b. both ends rounded, even— or the fertile distantly crenulate- 

 edged; veins pinnate, branches few, eimple, very oblique, sori email, distant, 1-5 to a segment, in slight 

 hollows caused by the veins not reaching the edge; involucres thinly membranous, reniform.— Adiantum 

 pauperculum, Kunze. Hypolepis, Hook. Fil. Vol. 2. t. 88. C. 



Bare ; St. Ann's parish, gathered near Ocho Kios by Mrs. Chisholm from whose spocimens this description 

 is taken; previously only known from Cuba. As in the preceding, the leaflets drop away in old fronds leav- 

 ing the naked framework standing mixed with the younger fronds. At first sight it has the appearance of a 

 finely divided species of Adiantum, to which genus it was originally ascribed. 



