Species Lindsaea ensifolia

For John Lindsay (c 1750–1803), British surgeon, discoverer of how ferns reproduce. While working in Jamaica in 1794, he observed that ferns produce seed in the form of tiny dust-like round or bean-shaped bodies (spores). He grew full-sized ferns from a mote of fern dust to prove it. When Sir Joseph Banks, president of the Royal Society, asked Lindsay to collect Jamaican plants, especially ferns, for the Kew Gardens, he replied that he would send seeds along with instructions for their sowing. Banks was astonished, as the mechanism by which ferns reproduced was hitherto unknown. James Edward Smith, a leading pteridologist, commemorated Lindsay for his discovery by naming a genus of tropical ferns after him.