A HAND-LIST
of the
JAMAICA FERNS AND THEIR ALLIES.
THIS LIST of the Jamaica Ferns I drew up some time ago as a reference for my own convenience
in carrying on a long, and still, delayed descriptive work on the subject, and, though a bare
enumeration, it may be of service to others. The great majority of the plants mentioned I
gathered myself in their homes during the years between 1874-9; the rest are included on the
authority of the works of Grisebach, Hooker, and Baker. A careful scrutiny of the West India Ferns
in the Kew Herbarium would doubtless prove that the List is not complete; it is however as full as
my own knowledge and the specific geographical references of the reliable authors named
enabled me to make it. But it is very probable from the many previously known species that I
gathered which are not definitely ascribed to Jamaica in published works, that more of the number
assigned in Hooker and Baker's "Synopsis Filicum” to the West Indies in general, or there
limited to pertain of the islands, are indigenous to Jamaica.
With regard to Cuba I may remark that, though it is so much larger, its physical conformation and
the common character of its flora with that of Jamaica, together with its contiguity, strongly favour
the presumption that a plant found in one of the countries exists also in the other. It may
therefore be expected that some of the many novelties which have of late years been discovered in Cuba will in time turn up in Jamaica.
My discoveries in Jamaica were made chiefly on the higher (southward) slopes, ridges and peaks of the Blue Mountain range, to which with the hills that abut on its southern base my labours in plant-
collecting were almost entirely confined. An equally close examination of the flora of the northern
slopes of the range and more particularly that of the western parishes would be of much interest
and probably reveal many novelties.
The plants which I failed in my explorations to find are followed by an asterisk. I shall be glad to
receive from correspondents any of those thus indicated or any authentic Jamaica Ferns not
included in this List.
The nomenclature of the "Synopsis Filicum' has been adopted, to which work and Grisebach's "Flora of the British West Indies" reference should be made for synonymy.
G. S. J.
British Guiana,
