A PARADISE 



ture of much time and trouble. But there are 

 other things quite as good in theirway. Here, 

 for instance, is Hymenophyllum asplenioides, 

 hanging down by its hair-like stem from the 

 horizontal bough of a tree, with its narrow, 

 taperingfronds, 6 or 7 inches long, bright green 

 and transparent, beautiful both in colour and 

 in form. And here, too, growing in a similar 

 position, is another very fine filmy of a peculiar 

 brownish grey colour, forming a great mass 

 of narrow, pendent fronds, 18 inches or more 

 in length, and covered all over with a woolly 

 hairiness. It is H. sericeum, a Fern that has a 

 character of its own, and can be mistaken for 

 no other. I believe it is very difficult to culti- 

 vate in this country, its dense woolliness ren- 

 dering it very liable to damp off. Among filmies 

 of this elegant, tapering, pendent type of frond 

 may be mentioned here Trichomanes sinuosum, 

 though it does not grow at this altitude, and 

 does not seem to be very common in Jamaica 

 at all. I found it in fine form near the Grand 

 Etang, in Grenada. In my specimens, the frond, 

 exclusive of the short stem, reaches to 1 o inches. 

 It has something of the look of Hymenophyllum 

 asplenioides, but the lobes are much sharper. It 

 is very thin in the texture, and of a fine pale 

 green colour. It is partial to the trunks of 

 Tree-Ferns, and seems, as Mr. Jenman notes, 

 to prefer Gyathea e/egans, which has a stem 

 covered with prickles and fibres, affording the 

 creeping rootstock the hold and the nourish- 

 ment it requires. Trichomanes scandens, again, 

 though its fronds also hang down, has not the 

 slender footstalk of those others ; it is much 

 stiffer and stronger, and the multified fronds, 

 a foot long, are firmer in texture, so that they 

 merely droop, instead of being completely 

 pendent. The colour is a golden green, and it 

 is very beautiful as it is seen climbing up the 

 trunk of a Tree-Fern, the fronds standing out 

 at regular intervals. Like the last, it prefers 

 a lower elevation, and is mostly, if not always, 

 found on the same Gyathea e/egans. I will only 

 glance at one or two of the smaller species, as 

 an enumeration and description of each of 

 them would be tedious to those who have not 

 seen them growing in their native home, how- 

 ever much one might liketo linger over them, 

 and recall the scenes in which they were first 

 observed. Among the small ones there that 

 grow at a height of 5,000 feet, one is sure to 



OF FERNS. 15 



notice Hymenophyllum lanatum, a tiny thing, 

 with tender pendent fronds about an inch long, 

 which are clothed with soft hairs, and lie im- 

 bricated over one another in close patches, 

 which are often very large. It is of a brownish 

 grey colour, like that of H. se rice um, and the in- 

 dividual fronds are in shape like the feathers 

 drawn from a small bird's breast. The only 

 other it could be confounded with is H. hirsu- 

 tum, which has also little pendent fronds form- 

 ing large patches, but they are longer, of a 

 different colour, and more divided. But none 

 of the small ones surpass H. elegantissimum in 

 beauty, with its very narrow, slightly divided 

 fronds and wavy margins. It is a perfect gem ; 

 but I must allow the dried specimens to speak 

 for themselves, although fronds separated for 

 drying cannot give an idea of the beauty of a 

 mass of it with every frond hanging down dis- 

 dinct. I must pass over, merely naming them 

 — H. fucoides, H. polyanthos, one of the most 

 abundant everywhere in the island above 

 1 ,5oofeet ; H. clavatum,H. axi/lare, H. lineare, 

 and H. hirtellum. With regard to H. ciliatum, 

 which is frequent in Jamaica, I found on the 

 Soufriere,inSt.Vincent,aFern which answers 

 very closely to the description of H. ciliatum, 

 but differs so greatly in size as to be entitled to 

 rank at least as a distinct variety. The fronds 

 of the Jamaican H. ciliatum are stated by Mr. 

 Jenman to have a length of from 1 \ to 3^ inches, 

 whereas my Soufriere form attains a length of 

 from 6 to 10 inches, and was found growing, 

 not only on logs, but also on the ground. There 

 did not seem to be anything special in the na- 

 ture of the habitat to account for this great 

 increase of size. This St. Vincent plant was 

 quite the most beautiful of the larger Hymeno- 

 phyllums I saw in the West Indies. We were 

 fortunate in finding, in the short time at our 

 disposal, fourteen out of twenty-three species 

 of Hymenophyllums that occur in Jamaica ; 

 two of the others have been only once found, 

 and there remain only seven, which are not 

 rare, and would probably have been found by 

 us had our opportunities been greater. 



A class of plants so tender and beautiful 

 as the tropical Filmy Ferns have naturally at- 

 tracted fern-growers in this country, but the 

 cultivation of them has been attended with 

 only partial success. One great difficulty has 

 been to obtain healthy and vigorous plants at 



