546 Maxon: ON THE IDENTITY OF CYATHEA MULTIFLORA 
the base, lanceolate, acuminate, pinnatifid. Segments 5 lines . 
long, oblong, rather acute, obtusely serrated.’ Unfortunately 
neither Smith nor Willdenow alludes to the venation, nor, 
except the brief notice of the former, to the involucres. Mr. 
Smith, who, as well as Mr. Gardner, has examined the original 
specimens, says that, as far as can be judged from the imper- 
fect specimens, it differs from the preceding ( H.? Parkert) only 
in wanting the coarse hairs on the rachis. Mr. Gardner con- 
siders it allied to Alsophila capensis.’ 
It may here be noted that Willdenow in all probability had 
not seen the original specimens of the species. His description,* 
which very greatly modifies and extends Smith’s original diagnosis, 
is thus one of the earliest misapplications of the species-name and 
is apparently the principal false basis from which so great an 
amount of misunderstanding has since arisen. 
Smith’s comment upon the source of his specimens, ‘‘ Habitat 
in Jamaica; ex herb. Banks,” led Dr. Underwood to look up the 
actual type of the species in the collection of Sir J. E. Smith 
at the rooms of the Linnean Society of London, a few years ago. 
He examined also the original specimens in the Banksian Herba- 
rium (now preserved in the British Museum, Natural History), 
from which the three pinnz of Sir J. E. Smith’s herbarium had been 
derived. His conclusion was that the specimens of the two col- 
lections, which are identical, represent a species otherwise un- 
known. Concerning the original source of the material he has 
written (in MS.), “ Jamaica, R. Shakespeare. Known only from 
plants collected in Jamaica in the last of the 18th century.” 
More recently the writer has received through the kindness 
of A. B. Rendle, F.LS., Keeper of the Herbarium of the British 
Museum, a photograph of Banks’s original specimens in the 
British Museum, here shown in PLATE 35, and with this two 
pinnules of the plant itself. A transcript of the data attached to 
the specimen, as shown by the photograph, is as follows: 
‘‘ Shakespeare, Robert, (fl. 1780-82). Collected in 
Jamaica (Hb. Banks).—1o, 7- 1903. Prof. L. M. 
Underwood called to see this type (?); hence the 
difficulties— ? (Can this specimen be the type of 
Hemitelia multiflora R. Br. Fl. Nov. Holl. p. 158. 
* Sp. Pl. 5: 406. 1810. 
