Sphaeropteris brunei (Christ) R. Tryon

Cyathea brunei Christ, Bull. Herb. Boiss. II. 4 : 497. 1904
Cyathea caesia Christ, Bull. Herb. Boiss. II. 7 : 272. 1907.
Caudex erect, 3-4 meters high, 30 cm. or more in diameter at the summit, there very densely paleaceous, without definite scars, the old fronds pendent and sheathing the caudex ; fronds 3.5-4 meters long, borne in a nearly erect crown ; stipe 5 cm. in diameter at the base, dark purplish-brown below, sparsely tuberculate beneath a very dense covering of delicate flaccid yellowish-brown scales, these (paler with age) up to 6 cm. long and 3.5 mm. broad, linear-lanceolate, very long-attenuate, widely spreading, underlaid by successively smaller scales, the innermost greatly reduced, dark-brown, subulate, conspicuously spinescent-ciliate, subpersistent; lamina about 3 meters long, 1.7 meters broad, broadly ovate, abruptly acuminate, the primary rachis stout, dull -yellowish or brownish, glabrescent, when young densely paleaceous, the scales small, dark-brown, closely entangled, long spinescent-ciliate, usually persistent in a long tuft at the base of the pinnae and extending throughout the stout yellowish secondary rachis, there deciduous or at the base of the pinnules subpersistent ; pinnae mostly alternate, the lowermost subopposite and somewhat reduced (40 cm. long), long-petiolate (6-9 cm.); characteristic pinnae 70-100 cm. long, 20-30 cm. broad, petiolate (2-5 cm.), oblong-lanceolate from a broad base, acuminate, caudate • pinnules 'about 40 pairs, 10-15 cm. long, 1.5-2.5 cm. broad, narrowly oblonglanceolate from a broader base, long-acuminate, cut to the costa, the lowermost short-p etiolate (3 mm. or less) and distant, those above gradually closer, sessile; costae sparingly clothed with laciniate or long spinescent-ciliate deciduous fulvous scales, these extending to the costules; segments mostly linear-oblong, falcate, obtuse, the fertile ones narrower (1-1.4 cm. long, 2.5-3 mm. broad) and apart, about 25-30 pairs, coriaceous, the margins somewhat thickened, subrevolute, entire or (in fertile segments) obscurely crenate, the leaf-tissue minutely but densely whitish granulose-ceraceous below, also minutely glandular-setose ; veins concealed, 10 or 11 pairs, onceor twice-forked; sori medial, completely covering the segment; indusium globose, firm, whitish or with age prui nose-brownish, bursting into several large infiexed persistent saccate lobes; receptacle brownish, elevated, relatively small, squamulose-pilose.
Type locality : Costa Rica.
Distribution : Not uncommon in the humid interior mountain region of Costa Rica, altitude 1450 to 2000 meters.