Cyathea dissoluta Bak.

Cyathea dissoluta Baker, Jour. Bot. 19 : 52. 1881
Caudex slender, 2-3 meters high, 5-7 cm. in diameter, the apex clothed with castaneous scales and rough between the nodular protuberances at the base of the distinct oval stipe-scars ; vegetative reproduction by small frondiferous lateral branches, these decurved from the caudex, finally falling and giving rise to independent new plants ; stipe slender, 30 cm. or less long, brownish -castaneous, strongly decurved at the base and closely covered with castaneous scales, prickly with short straight spines, above tuberculate, glabrate ; lamina 1-1.5 meters long, 40-75 cm. broad, deeply tripinnatifid, chartaceous, dark-green, the primary rachis castaneous, nearly smooth, glabrous ; pinnae approximate or overlapping, short-petiolate (1-2 cm.), 20-38 cm. long, 10-16 cm. broad, deltoid-oblong, shortacuminate, the secondary rachis dull light-brownish, sparsely muricate or smoothish, glabrous below, the upper surface with appressed rusty hairs ; pinnules about 20 pairs, approximate, sessile or the lower ones short-stalked, 5-8 cm. long, 1.3-2 cm. broad, lanceolate, acuminate, cut nearly to the costa or in large specimens the basal segments free ; segments 14-16 pairs, oblong, falcate, obtuse, 7-10 mm. long, 3.5-4 mm. broad, contiguous, the sinuses very narrow, the margins obliquely crenate ; costae and costules bearing deciduous shining castaneous bullate scales, with a few pale fibrils intermixed, these extending to the veins, the costules also with a few appressed deciduous hairs above ; veins 5-9 pairs, simple or mostly once-forked, very oblique ; sori 3-6 pairs, near the costule, occup5dng one half or more of the segment ; indusia castaneous, membranous, globose, bursting irregularly into several spreading persistent calyciform segments ; receptacle short, subglobose, setiferous.
Type locality : Near Morces Gap, Jamaica, altitude 1500 meters.
Distribution : Confined to forests in the Blue Mountains of Jamaica, altitude 1500 to 1800 meters.