Anemia cuneata Poepp. ex Spreng.

Anemia cuneata Kunze ; Spreng. Syst. Veg. 4 : 32. 1827 ;
I^innaea 9: 21. 1834.
Rhizome rather freely creeping, densely clothed with turgid acicular dark-brown hairs ; fronds several, dorsal, manifestly distichous, spaced, the stipes of the fertile fronds not equaling the sterile fronds. Sterile fronds 8-31 cm. long, rigidly ascending ; stipes slender, up to 12 cm. long, shorter than the lamina, stramineous from a castaneous base, glabrous ; lamina up to 19 cm. long, usually much smaller, narrowly ovate-lanceolate in outline, attenuate, bipinnate or, as to the lower pinnae, tripinnate ; pinnae 4-8 pairs, alternate, distant, strongly ascending, decreasing gradually from the base of the lamina toward the apex ; lower and middle pinnae petiolate, lanceolate in outline, acute or attenuate, with 3-5 pairs of very oblique alternate narrow pinnules, of these the upper basal one largest, pinnate at the base and comprising 3-5 alternate slender long-cuneate narrowly oblanceolate or nearly linear segments, these strongly fimbriate or inciso-dentate at the apex ; upper pinnae gradually simpler, at least bipinnate, only the uppermost simple, finally confluent at the slender serrate apex ; pinnules and segments anadromous ; veins evident above, scarcely so below;, leaf-tissue rigidly herbaceous, slightly lustrous, paler and glandular below, and with a very few scattering stiff hairs between the veins upon both surfaces. Fertile fronds more rigidly erect, up to 30 cm. long ; stipe as long as the lamina or commonly twice as long; sterile lamina similar to that of the sterile frond; fertile (basal) pinnae remote, long-p etiolate, elongate but not equaling the sterile lamina, the divisions short and remote, the lower ones stalked, with several pairs of close simple or forked segments ; spores flexuose-striate, the ridges slightly undulate. Type locality : Shaded rocky banks of streams, near Santa Ana-Cavalleros, Cuba. Distribution : Known only from Cuba.