80 NORTH AMERICAN FLORA [VoLUME 16 
lanceolate from a broader base, long-acuminate, cut to the costa, the lowermost short-petiolate 
(3 mm. or less) and distant, those above gradually closer, sessile; costae sparingly clothed 
with laciniate or long spinescent-ciliate deciduous fulvous scales, these extending to the 
costules; segments mostly linear-oblong, falcate, obtuse, the fertile ones narrower (1-1.4 
cm. long, 2.5-3 mm. broad) and apart, about 25-30 pairs, coriaceous, the margins some- 
what thickened, subrevolute, entire or (in fertile segments) obscurely crenate, the leaf-tissue 
minutely but densely whitish granulose-ceraceous below, also minutely glandular-setose ; 
veins concealed, 10 or 11 pairs, once- or twice-forked ; sori medial, completely covering the 
segment; indusium globose, firm, whitish or with age pruinose-brownish, bursting into 
several large inflexed persistent saccate lobes; receptacle brownish, elevated, relatively 
small, squamulose-pilose. 
TYPE LOCALITY: Costa Rica. _ 
DISTRIBUTION: Not uncommon in the humid interior mountain region of Costa Rica, altitude 
1450 to 2000 meters. 
27. Cyathea tenera (J. Smith) Griseb. Fl. Brit. W. Ind. 704. 1864. 
Alsophila tenera J. Smith; Hook. Sp. Fil. 1: 49. 1844. 
Cyathea barbaia Bory ; Mett. Linnaea 36: 164. 1869. 
Cyathea hypotricha Christ, Bull. Herb. Boiss. 11.4: 947. 1904. 
Caudex erect, up to 8 meters high, somewhat spiny, clothed at the summit with 
copious bright-brown long linear chaff; stipe divergent, stout, 2 cm. in diameter, 40 cm. 
or more long, castaneous to dull-brownish, paleaceous below with bright-brown linear-lan- 
ceolate scales, freely asperous with short straight spines; lamina ample, variable in size 
and cutting, the apex short-acuminate, the primary rachis sparsely aculeate or muricate, 
minutely furfuraceo-pubescent, glabrescent, olivaceous to dull-reddish ; pinnae numerous, 
alternate, approximate or contiguous, subsessile or short-petiolate, the larger ones 30-45 
cm. long, 13-16 cm. broad, oblong, acuminate, the secondary rachis olivaceous or yellowish- 
brown, muricate or smoothish, closely pubescent, glabrescent; pinnules about 23-28 pairs, 
approximate or apart, subsessile or short-petiolate, 7-10 cm. long, 1.2-1.7 cm. broad, elon- 
gate-oblong, short-acuminate, very deeply pinnatifid, the costa pilose above with subap- 
pressed yellowish hairs, below (together with the costules and veins) clothed with numerous 
long spreading rigid whitish hairs, the costules also with a few minute bullate yellowish- 
brown scales below and numerous spreading hairs above; segments 13-17 pairs, oblong, 
subfalcate, close, sometimes dilatate, separated by a narrow sinus, obtuse, the margins 
manifestly crenate-serrate; veins 5-8 pairs, simple or once-forked ; sori small, 4-6 pairs, 
slightly inframedial; indusium globose, membranous, exceedingly delicate, rupturing 
readily at maturity and commonly disappearing, excepting only a small inferior disciform 
subpersistent remnant; receptacle small, globose, short. 
TYPE LOCALITY: St. Vincent. 
DISTRIBUTION: General in the Lesser Antilles and Trinidad ; known also from Cuba and Costa 
Rica, Variable. 
28. Cyathea dissoluta Baker, Jour. Bot. 19: 52. 1881. 
Caudex slender, 2-3 meters high, 5-7 cm. in diameter, the apex clothed with casta- 
neous scales and rough between the nodular protuberances at the base of the distinct oval 
stipe-scars; vegetative reproduction by small frondiferous lateral branches, these decurved 
from the caudex, finally falling and giving rise to independent new plants; stipe slender, 
30 cm. or less long, brownish-castaneous, strongly decurved at the base and closely covered 
with castaneous scales, prickly with short straight spines, above tuberculate, glabrate; 
lamina 1-1.5 meters long, 40-75 cm. broad, deeply tripinnatifid, chartaceous, dark-green, 
the primary rachis castaneous, nearly smooth, glabrous; pinnae approximate or overlap- 
ping, short-petiolate (1-2 cm.), 20-38 cm. long, 10-16 cm. broad, deltoid-oblong, short- 
acuminate, the secondary rachis dull light-brownish, sparsely muricate or smoothish, 
glabrous below, the upper surface with appressed rusty hairs; pinnules about 20 pairs, ap- 
proximate, sessile or the lower ones short-stalked, 5-8 cm. long, 1.3-2 cm. broad, lanceo- 
late, acuminate, cut nearly to the costa or in large specimens the basal segments free ; 
segments 14-16 pairs, oblong, falcate, obtuse, 7-10 mm. long, 3.5-4 mm. broad, contiguous, 
