Alsophila cubensis (Underw. ex Maxon) Caluff & Shelton

Cyathea cubensis Underwood, sp. nov
Caudex 3^ meters high, 8-12 cm. in diameter, appearing thicker from the clinging bases of old fronds, somewhat spiny ; definite stipe-scars rare, these rou^h with protruding fibro-vascular bundles or rarely smooth, elongate-oval, about 7 cm. long, 3.5 cm. broad; stipe 25-35 cm. long, 2-3 cm. thick, paleor yellowish-brown, densely rusty-f urf uraceous, paleaceous at the base (the scales somewhat flaccid, pale-brown) and armed with numerous scattered nearly straight dark-brown spines below and at the sides, the upper surface unarmed ; lamina about 2.^ meters long, 1-1.25 meters broad, tripinnate, chartaceo-coriaceous, dark-green above, paler below, the primary rachis yellowish-brown, minutely furfuraceous, glabrescent, slightly spinescent toward the base, smooth above ; pinnae approximate, all but the lowermost sessile, 45-65 cm. long, 17-24 cm. broad, lanceolate, the apex long-acuminate, deeply serrate, the secondary rachis yellowish or pale-brown, slightly furfuraceous below, above sulcate, ap press ed-hirsute, and slightly fibrillose ; pinnules 25-30 pairs, approximate or a little apart, sessile or nearly so, 9-12 cm. long, 1.75-2.2 cm. broad, tapering gradually in the upper third to a long-acuminate crenate-serrulate apex ; segments 22-24 pairs, 10-12 mm. long, 4-4.5 mm. broad, oblong, straight or subfalcate, obtuse, the lowermost somewhat apart and sessile, those above adnate and mostly connected by a narrow wing, the margins crenulate-serrulate, at least toward the apex ; costae yellowish, glabrate above, below sparsely and deciduously paleaceous, the scales small, yellowish or brownish, fimbriate, with larger narrower dark scales intermixed, especially toward the base ; costules naked above, below sparsely paleaceous and sometimes slightly hairy in the outer part, the scales yellowish or brown, fiattish ; veins 9-11 pairs, onceor frequently twice-forked near the base, dark ; sori close to the costule, 2-4 (5) pairs, usually at the base of the segment; indusium deeply hemispheric, pale-brownish, collapsing at maturity ; receptacle large, setiferous, scarcely or not included.
Type collected on the slopes of Ul Yunque, Cuba, altitude 500-600 meters, March, 1903, Underwood & Earle 1313.
Distribution : Common throughout the partially forested mountains of eastern Cuba, alti-