324 JAMAICA FERNS. 



deltoid ; under side pale, surfaces naked but with a few minute 

 scales on the costulae and ribs, cost« pubescent above ; texture 

 subcoriaccous ; veins simple, or the basal forked, 3-5 to a side ; 

 sori in two rows, one on each side, close to the costulie, attached 

 at the base of the veins, one or two to each lobe ; involucre thin, 

 dark brown, small and very shallow, with the receptacle exserted 

 above the entire rim ; costae puberulous beneath, with a scar-like 

 gland on the rachis at the base of each. — Mansfield, near Bath. 

 Wilson, 686, in Herb. Brit. Mus. Near the Cuban C. hcdanoccuya, 

 Eaton, from which it differs by the pinnatifid pinnulas, less 

 vestiture of leaf, and shallow, saucer-like involucres. According 

 to Wilson there is no stipe or hardly any to the frond, the 

 dwindling pinnae reaching to its base ; and it seems to be quite 

 unarmed, the rachis being smooth and glabrous. Of Jamaican 

 species the involucre resembles in form most that of C. Serra, 

 Willd. 



Cyathea conquisita, n. sp. — Trunk tall and stout ; fronds erect, 

 5 or 6 feet long; (pinn* ?) 6-8 inches long, 1-li inches wide, 

 quite sessile, fully pinnate, with half their own width between the 

 lower segments ; segments oblong, rounded at the apex, and finely 

 serrulate, | inch long, 2 lines wide, not curved but spreading 

 horizontally, at least in the lower half; texture coriaceous ; colour 



y dark and dull above, beneath pale greyish ; surfaces naked but a 



few minute scales on the ribs beneath, both rachis and costae rusty 

 tomentose above, the latter subarticulate at the base ; veins once 

 forked ; the line of sori rather nearer the midvein than the 

 margin ; involucre very thin, dark brown eventually breaking 

 down ; rachis chestnut-brown. — Wilson, 134, m Herb. Brit. Mus. 

 The specimens do not show whether this and the next are 

 tripinnate or only bipinnate plants. Wilson's label says, — " A 

 large growing tree-fern, fronds nearly upright, and five or six feet 

 long, stem large, quite a (small) tree. Very different from No. 16." 

 Its nearest affinity is with the following species, from which it is 

 best recognised by the open space which occurs between the 

 segments at their base, whereby the inferior ones are isolated. 

 The segments are flat and the lines of sori and the veins show 

 distinctly on the upper side. 



Cyathea pendula, n . sp . — Trunks several feet high , rather slender ; 

 fronds spreading, pendant; pinnas (?) sessile, 6-9 mches long, 1-1^ 



\\ inches wide, deeply pinnatifid, or fully pinnate at the very base ; seg- 

 ments 6-8 lines loug, 1-2 lines wide, rounded and serrulate at the 

 apex, the sinus between them being narrow ; texture very coria- 

 ceous ; colour dull dark green above, glaucous beneath ; sm'faces 

 naked, the costae being slightly puberulous beneath, and above 

 rusty tomentose as is the rachis, the latter a bright chestnut- 

 brown ; veins once forked ; sori situated at then- forking, forming 

 a line near the midrib ; involucre very thin and fragile, chestnut- 

 brown, breaking down to the base.— Wilson, 16, in Herb. Brit. Mus. 

 " A tree-fern 8-10 feet high ; stem about the size of a man's wrist 

 or smaller, fronds at the top only which hang all round, hence its 

 Creole name, 'Parasol Fern.' " Very different from 134," Wilson. 



