FERNS OF THE MALAY-ASIATIC REGION. 57 



87. Cyathea brunoniana (Wall.) Clarke & Baker. 



A large tree; main rachis prickly; secondary raehises slightly prickly 

 or smooth and glabrous; costa sparsely and deciduously crisped-pubescent 

 beneath, naked or nearly so above; segments minutely hairy on the 

 veinlets, the fertile ones not contracted, 15 to 18 mm long, 3 mm wide, 

 entire, obtuse, coriaceous, glabrous, somewhat glaucous beneath; veinlets 

 about 13 on a side, forked, nearly all fertile; sori costular; indusium 

 at first globose and complete, soon breaking down to an irregular cup. 



Northern India. 



88. Cyathea decipiens (Scott) Clarke & Baker. 



Trunk 15 m high; stipes spiny, mahogany-brown and scaly at the base, 

 pale-brown and furfuraceous upward; raehises very prickly; pinnae sessile, 

 ample, acuminate; pinnules 10 to 12.5 cm long, 2 cm wide, sessile, 

 acuminate, cut nearly or quite to the costa, costa? and costules bearing 

 bullate scales; segments not close, 2 mm wide, acute, subfalcate, serrate, 

 subcoriaceous, dark-green above, gray-green beneath but not glaucous; 

 veinlets 10 to 12 on a side, two to four times forked; sori qpstular, small; 

 indusium at first complete and spherical, fragile. Specimens in cultiva- 

 tion have been mistmken for C. spinttiom, and Beddome implies that he 

 can distinguish them only by the indusium. 



Northern India, alt. 600 m. 



89. Cyathea spinulosa Wall. 



A tall tree-fern; stipe and rachis purple, very spiny beneath, raehises 

 rusty above; frond 3 m long; pinnae stalked, abruptly acuminate; pinnules 

 subsessile, 8 cm long, acuminate, cut almost to the costa; costa hairy 

 above, beneath bearing small bullate scales, as do the costules, which 

 are glabrous, above; segments close, acute, subfalcate, serrulate, the 

 lamina glabrous, thin; veinlets 8 to 10 on a side, forked; sori costular, 

 small, numerous, but not reaching the ends of the segments; indusia at 

 first complete, breaking into large pieces, finally disappearing. 



India (altitude up to 1,000 m), to Malaya and Japan. 



DO. Cyathea mearnsii Copel. in Philip. Journ. Sci. Bot. 3 (1908) 356. 



Trunk 5 cm thick, thinly clothed at the top with black roots; bases of 

 stipes bearing thin, gray-brown, narrow scales 15 mm long; rachis 1 cm 

 thick, tawny, everywhere glabrous, unarmed; pinnae up to 60 cm long, 25 

 cm wide, sessile, their raehises smooth beneath, above clothed, like the 

 costae, with a dark, close pubescence; pinnules sessile, very acuminate, 

 horizontal, up to 29 mm wide at the base, cut at the base to the costa, else- 

 where to a narrow wing, costa reddish beneath, bearing some fine furfura- 

 ceous scales; segments falcate-acute, serrate, 3 to 4 mm wide, glabrous 

 except for occasional squamules on the costules beneath pale beneath and 



