MAXON: ON THE IDENTITY OF CYATHEA MULTIFLORA 549 
broad; fronds spreading, 1.3 to 2.1 meters long; stipe up to 45 cm 
long, curved, light brown, sulcate ventrally, noticeably brownish- 
pubescent, freely armed with straight or slightly curved spreading 
spines 3 to 5 mm. long, and clothed toward the base with deciduous 
ovate-lanceolate attenuate glossy bright-brown scales 1.5 to 
2 cm. long with narrowly erose paler margins, similar scales 
rather densely clothing the crown and upper part of the caudex; 
lamina I to 1.7 meters long, 60 to 100 cm. broad at the middle, 
ovate, deeply tripinnatifid, abruptly acuminate, the primary 
rachis scantily aculeate near the base, upward sparsely muricate 
or smooth, stramineous-brownish, antrorsely brownish-strigose 
upon the upper side, below closely beset with stiffish mainly re- 
trorse subpersistent yellowish hairs; pinne articulate, 14 to 17 
pairs, approximate, the basal ones horizontal or usually 
deflexed, opposite and relatively short (25 to 32 cm. long, 
8 to 11 cm. broad), elliptic-oblong, petiolate (1.5 to 3 cm.); middle 
pinnae larger, alternate, widely spreading, exactly linear-oblong, 
not narrowed at the base, 30 to 50 cm. long, 7 to 14 cm. broad, 
sessile or subsessile, abruptly acuminate-caudate, the secondary 
rachis like the primary, in the outer part delicately foliaceo- 
marginate; pinnules 20 to 24 pairs, articulate, deciduous, mostly 
spreading at right angles, slightly separated or half their width 
apart, all but the lowermost strictly sessile, linear-oblong, 3 to 7 
cm. long, 9 to 18 mm. broad, acutish or rarely acuminate, regu- 
larly pinnatifid two thirds to four fifths the distance toward the 
slender elevated costa; costae yellowish-strigose above, below 
bearing a few minute deciduous yellowish brown subbullate at- 
tenuate scales, glabrous or minutely setulose; segments 9 to 12 
pairs, slightly oblique, straight or slightly falcate, oblong, close, 
the margins plane or lightly revolute, crenate-dentate, strongly 
so at the very obtuse or sometimes muticous apex, the sides nearly 
parallel; costules bearing 2 to 4 stiff spinelike hairs above, below 
glabrous or obscurely and minutely setulose; veins wide-spreading, 
4 to 8 pairs, simple or once forked at or beyond the middle, dark, 
more or less concealed, extending to the margin; sori I to 4 pairs, 
mostly medial, the lower ones supramedial, borne at or just below 
the fork; indusium proximal, brown, membranous, cucullate- 
dimidiate, finally somewhat reflexed and cleft into 2 or 3 shallow 
lobes, often nearly disappearing with age; receptacle globose, 
the numerous flaccid paraphyses equaling the sporangia; leaf 
tissue papyraceo-herbaceous, translucent, very dark green above, 
much paler below, glabrous. 
Type Loca.ity: ‘‘ America meridionalis,”’ R. Shakespeare. 
DIsTRIBUTION: Guatemala, Nicaragua, Costa Rica, and 
