130 TlMEHRI. 
plants proved quite erroneous. They were in fact Blechnum volubile 
in its growing state, — a mature plant of which was growing close by 
without the difform radical fronds that had perplexed and misled us. 
The course of the development of Blechnum volubile is therefore this 
— The rootstock is ligneous, reclinate and short-creeping. Several ap- 
proximate, simply pinnate fronds, one to two feet high, quite barren 
and that show no connection with the ultimate state, are first thrown 
up one after another. Then arises a frond of a very different character : 
it is bi-pinnate, very tall and climbing in habit, and ascends growing 
trees and bushes for ten or twelve feet by twining round and round 
their stems. The lower pinnae are the largest and are invariably bar- 
ren ; they gradually diminish in size upwards till, in the uppermost of 
all, they become simple and the frond terminates in a small entire 
pinna. Those of the upper half of the frond are fertile, but the sori drop 
away after a time, leaving little or no trace of their presence. Hence- 
forward this is the only kind of frond produced. Old specimens form 
quite a little thicket of frond-stems, but the early characteristic of the 
plant's life which has not before we believe been observed and des- 
cribed, have then long ago disappeared. 
Scraps of Colonial History. — From the Trinity Parish 
Magazine we extract the following item, the first part 
being an extract from the diary of the Rev. W. H. BRETT, 
the late rector of the parish and virtually founder of the 
mission to the Indians of the Pomeroon, the second 
being a letter addressed in 1853 by the postholder of the 
Pomeroon, Mr. W. C. H. F. McCLlNTOCK, to the then 
Lieutenant Governor, William WALKER : — 
" The Rev. J. H. Duke [the third Rector of the Parish of Holy 
Trinity] had, from about 1835 been in the habit of visiting the Pome- 
roon occasionally, and had established a teacher in the lower district;, 
among the negroes. There were, at the emancipation, many blacks 
living on the wood-cutting establishments in the upper districts ; and 
a rude building had been erected at the junction of the Pomeroon and 
Arapiaco for the occasional performance of Divine Service. On the 
