416 CONTRIBUTIONS FROM THE NATIONAL HERBARIUM. 
bearing an occasional distant flattish or subbullate pale brownish scale; major veins 
about 8 paiys per pinnule, each with 3 to 5 pairs of simple oblique branches to each 
crenation, the lowermost pair of branches extending to the sinus; sori very few, 
small, medial; indusium proximal, small, dimidiate, light brown, somewhat erose; 
receptacle minutely squamulose-pilose. 
Type Locatity: Antoine, Bellevue, Grenada (Elliott). 
DistrRiBuTION: Known only from the mountains of Grenada. 
Hemitelia elliottii is here redescribed chiefly from a specimen so named in the 
Jenman collection (acquired by the New York Botanical Garden in 1903) and marked 
as coming from Grenada, the collector’s name not specified. The general appearance 
of the plant, its smaller size, and its nearly sterile condition all lead to the suspicion 
that it may be a juvenile form of some other species. There is, however, no hint of 
identity with Hemitelia wilsont Hook., to which species it was referred by Jenman.' 
In the character of its few scales it suggests relationship with Hemitelia sessilifolia, 
but it is more likely to prove a reauced or juvenile form of some South American 
species. 
2. Hemitelia sessilifolia Jenman, I’erns Brit. W. Ind. Guian. 44. 1898. PLATE 17. 
Alsophila sessilifolia Jenman, Journ. Bot. 20: 325. 1882. 
Type Locauity: Mansfield, near Bath, Jamaica ( Wilson 520). 
Distripution: Known only from the original collection. 
The specimens upon which this species was described are preserved at Kew and in 
the British Museum. The writer has received from the latter institution a photograph 
and pinnule of the type and has examined two additional complete specimens in the 
Underwood Fern Herbarium, New York Botanical Garden, apparently of the original 
collection by Wilson. These indicate a species similar to the larger states of Hemitelia 
wilsoni in cut of leaf, but differing in the characters noted under that species. Jenman, 
though listing and describing sessilifolia as distinct from wilsoni, nevertheless states 
that ‘‘it is probably a non-indusiate state of wilsont Hook., which it very much resem- 
bles in the largest states.’’ Hemitelia sessilifolia is not, however, non-indusiate. The 
indusia, as made out from a pinna of the type collection preserved in Jenman’s own 
collection (since acquired by the New York Botanical Garden), have been described 
by the writer (in manuscript for the North American Flora) as ‘“‘brown, proximal, 
dimidiate, deeply lacerate, the divisions fimbriate, fragile, only the broader basal 
portions usually persistent, or these tardily deciduous.’’ They are thus very different 
from the indusia of H. wilsoni but not very unlike those of H. muricata, a species 
which is not closely allied to it. 
EXPLANATION OF PLATE 17.—Section of a primary pinna in Underwood Fern Herbarium, collected by 
Wilson and apparently a part of the original collection. Natural size. 
3. Hemitelia wilsoni Hook. in Hook. & Baker, Syn. Fil. 30. 1865. Puate 18. 
TyrrE Locauiry: Mansfield, near Bath, Jamaica ( Wilson 731). 
DistriputTion: Mountains of Jamaica and Porto Rico, at 300 to 900 meters alti- 
tude; rare. 
The present species is one of the most peculiar tree ferns of the West Indies and 
probably one of the rarest. It was first collected by Wilson in some part of eastern 
Jamaica near Mansfield, a region which has yielded several other new and as yet 
little known species of Cyatheaceae. According to Jenman it has since been col- 
tected in Jamaica by Syme, Sherring, and Hart near Mount Moses and Claverty 
Cottage. Jenman includes Grenada in its range also, but the specimens so referred 
appear to represent a distinct species, Hemitelia elliottii, described by Baker. 
The relationship of Hemitelia wilsoni is with H. sessilifolia, but it differs somewhat 
in cut of leaf and very noticeably in its large whitish (not lacerate nor brownish) 
indusia, as well as in its rather numerous, large, subpersistent, flat, appressed, whitish 
‘ Ferns Brit. W. Ind. Guian. 44. 1898. 
