Alsophila grevilleana (Mart.) D. S. Conant

Cyathea elegans Hew. Mag. Nat. Hist. II. 2 : 466. 1838
Cyathea arb or ea pallida Hook. Sp. Fil. 1 : 17. 1844.
Caudex erect, 3-7 meters high, 5-10 cm. in diameter, densely covered (especially in smaller plants) with old stipe-bases, the eventual scars rough with projecting fibrovascular bundles; stipe 10-30 cm. long, 2 cm. in diameter at the base, dark-brown, minutely puberulofurfuraceous, bearing on the under surface a few deciduous subulate glossy darkbrown scales and armed with a few short long-pointed curved spines, and commonly bearing also a pair of abortive pinnae ; lamina ample, 2-3 meters long, 90-130 cm. broad, chartaceo-coriaceous, tripinnate, dark-green, the rachis pale-brown, puberulous, smooth or below somewhat muricate, the secondary rachises similar ; pinnae approximate, oblonglanceolate, 45-70 cm. long, 15-22 cm. broad, sessile or the lowermost short-stalked (1-1.5 cm.) ; pinnules 25-35 pairs, approximate, sessile, patent, 8-10 cm. long, 1.2-2 cm. broad, lanceolate-oblong, cut nearly or quite to the costa, the apex serrate-acuminate, the costa brownish, densely long-setose above, below sparingly furfuraceopaleaceous and pilose in the outer part with stiff yellowish hairs ; segments 18-20 pairs, subfalcate, oblong, slightly oblique, acute, the basal ones slightly apart and subsessile, the others approximate and adnate, the margins subrevolute, crenate-serrate, doubly so below; veins (7-10 pairs) onceor twice-forked, naked ; costulae naked above, below bearing a few yellowish-brown bullate scales and stiff yellowish hairs ; sori near the costule at the forking of the veins, 4-6 pairs, occupying two thirds or less of the segment; indusium very deeply cyathiform, or before maturity ovoid and greatly constricted at the mouth, membranous, pale-castaneous ; receptacle conical, dark-grayish, minutely f urf uraceous .
Type locality : Mayday Mountains, Jamaica.
BiSTRiBUTiON : Apparently confined to Jamaica, there common in forests at from 300 to 1200 meters elevation.