MAXON—STUDIES OF TROPICAL AMERICAN FERNS. 41 
below crispate-tomentulose, glabrescent; major lobes about 27 to 32 pairs, subequal, 
7 to 9 mm. broad at the base, obtuse, close, separated by narrow nearly closed sinuses, 
the margins slightly revolute, subentire, the costules elevated, arcuate toward theapex, 
glabrous above, glabrate below; veins 10 to 14 pairs to the lobe, oblique, the lowermost 
ones of adjacent segments joined by a transverse veinlet (forming a narrow elliptical 
areole), with 1 or 2 veinlets irregularly soriferous and excurrent to the sinus, there 
meeting the two basal veins, the other veins simple or mostly once-forked below the 
middle, soriferous at or below the fork or rarely (in the case of the lower veins) beyond 
the fork; sori distinctly apart, forming a slightly inframedial line extending from below 
the apex downward nearly to the costa, there joining the sori of the adjacent lobe ata 
point remote from the sinus, thus forming one end ofa nearly perfect ellipse; indusium 
ample, membranous, semicircular in outline, 2 or 3-lobed, the lobes shallow, spreading, 
irregular; receptacle capitate, setiferous; leaf tissue membrano-herbaceous, dark and 
lustrous above, paler below. 
Type in the U.S. National Herbarium, no. 830322; collected in forest near Buenos 
Aires, Costa Rica, February, 1892, by H. Pittier (no. 4835). 
Hemitelia choricarpa is apparently confined to Costa Rica, the only other specimens 
seen being from Cafias Gordas, altitude 1,100 meters, March, 1897, Pittier 10966. The 
characters depended upon in the key to distinguish it from related species are diag- 
nostic, 
EXPLANATION OF PLATE 24,—See p. 39. 
18. Hemitelia grandifolia (Willd.) Spreng. Syst. Veg. 4: 125. 1827. = PLaTE 25, 
Cyathea grandifolia Willd, Sp. Pl. 5: 490, 1810. 
Hemitelia imrayana Wook. Icon. Pl. 7: pl. 669. 1844. 
Hemitelia horrida imrayana Hook. in Hook, & Baker, Syn. Fil. 28, 1868. 
Hemistegia willdenovit Fée, Gen, Fil, 351. 1850-52. 
Microstegnus grandifolius Presl, Abh. Béhm, Ges, Wiss, V. 5: 354. 1848. 
Hemistegia insignis Fée, Mém,. Foug. 11:99. 1866. 
Hemitelia insignis C, Chr. Index Fil. 349. 1905, 
Caudex arborescent, erect, frequently 4 to 5 meters high, about 10 cm. in diameter, 
at the base (with its copious covering of brownish flexuous adventive roots) about 
15 cm. in diameter, densely clothed at the summit with whitish lanceolate scales; 
fronds ascending, arching, up to 1.7 meters long, the stipes very stout, more or less 
imbricate, adnate or ascending close to the caudex, whitish-paleaceous at. the base, 
eventually deciduous, leaving definite spaced quincuncially arranged elongate-oval 
scars; lamina ample, ovate, 1 to 1.25 meters long or more, 60 to 80 cm. broad, short- 
acuminate, the rachis very stout, yellowish brown, distantly muricate to smooth, 
convex or lightly sulcate on the lower side, on the upper side (at least in the lower 
part) deeply and narrowly sulcate, the ridges rounded, each similarly sulcate at the 
outer side; scales of the rachis deciduous, ovate or deltoid-ovate, long-acuminate, 
whitish, with a bright brown median stripe, finely erose; pinnze opposite or suboppo- 
site, the lowermost somewhat deflexed, ovate-lanceolate, about 25 cm. long; middle 
pinne spreading, 8 to 10 cm. apart on each side, very narrowly deltoid-lanceolate to 
narrowly oblong-lanceolate, 30 to 40 cm. long, 6 to 11.5 cm. broad, sessile, scarcely or 
not at all reduced at the base, at the lower side strongly imbricate upon the rachis, 
close above, pinnatifid nearly to the costa, or the basal segments free, above this the 
segments connected by a narrow gradually increasing costal wing 2 to 4 mm. broad or 
finally about 4 to 6 mm. broad on each side below the crenate-serrate, ultimately 
biserrate, acuminate apex; costs very stout, yellowish brown to castaneous, glabrous 
above, below (especially toward the base) freely paleaceous, the scales similar to those 
of the rachis but smaller and relatively broader, the brownish median stripe often 
obsolete; segments adjacent or somewhat apart, 25 to 34 pairs, oblong-lanceolate, 
sometimes dilatate, the inferior basal one often reduced, inequilateral, and invariably 
