24 CONTRIBUTIONS FROM THE NATIONAL HERBARIUM. 



Cyathea nocJcii, of the high mountains of Jamaica, is at once the 

 smallest and the most peculiar member of the genus. The short trunk 

 never rises from the ground, and the coriaceous shining fronds, 

 rarely more than a meter in length, resemble strikingly those of some 

 coarse Dryopteris or Polystichum. This is the species which Mr. 

 Baker has referred to C. arborea, a noble lowland species 5 to 12 

 meters high, with a wide-spreading crown of numerous fronds 2 to 4 

 meters long. 



Cyathea balanocarpa and C. pubescens are also high mountain 

 forms, with thick trunks attaining a height of from 3 to 12 meters, 

 crowned with numerous erect or erect-arching fronds. C. minor is a 

 Cuban species with a very slender caudex and few spreading fronds, 

 these short-stipitate, the blade very greatly reduced at the base, the 

 segments mostly adnate. Allied to the last, which is apparently 

 rare, is the new species here described from Cuba, well marked by its 

 short, horizontal, and mostly hypogean stem, long-stipitate fronds, 

 and distinctly stalked segments. It is dedicated with pleasure to 

 Mr. Theodore Brooks, of Guantanamo, Cuba, through whose courtesy 

 and kindly help the writer was enabled to pass several weeks very 

 profitably in 1907 in the region of the Yateras in eastern Cuba, an 

 interesting territory best known from Wright's classic explorations of 

 nearly fifty years ago and since then scarcely touched except by 

 Baron Eggers. 



KEY TO THE SPECIES. 



Caudex procumbent, short, 10 to 40 cm. long. 



Fronds nearly or quite exstipitate; segments mostly adnate, 



coriaceous 1. c. nockii. 



Fronds long-stipitate; segments mostly short-stalked, charta- 



ceous 2. C. broohii. 



Caudex erect, elongate, 2 to 12 meters long. 



Caudex slender, 2.5 to 3.5 cm. in diameter; lamina long-atten- 

 uate below 3. c. minor. 



Caudex stout, 8 to 20 cm. in diameter; lamina more abruptly 

 reduced below. 

 Primary rachis pubescent or hirsute; segments close, 



adnate; costai conspicuously pilose below 4. C. pubescens. 



Primary rachis furfuraceous; segments spaced, mostly 

 auriculate; costee both paleaceous and pilose 5. C. balanocarpa. 



1. Cyathea nockii Jenm. Journ. Bot. 17: 257. 1879. 

 Type locality: Bellevue, Jamaica, Nock <fc Jenman. 



Distribution: Confined to the Blue Mountains of Jamaica; not uncommon upon 

 the steep forested slopes near Vinegar Hill, altitude, 1,000 to 1,200 meters (Maxon 

 2791); also below Clnchina. 



2. Cyathea brooksii Maxon, sp. now 



Caudex horizontal, mostly subterranean, about, 40 cm. long, 3 cm. in diameter, 

 emitting a few coarse cord-like roots below; fronds few (2 or 3), long-stipitate, erect- 

 arching, 125 cm. or more long; stipe 35 to 40 cm. long, brownish, clothed at the base 

 with a few linear-lanceolate opaque dark-brown scales less than I cm. long, above dull 



