sent very rarely, Miller never succeeded in flowering it; 
and was told at Amsterdam, where it had been long cul- 
tivated, that it was never known to blossom at that 
place. A very common plant in the hothouses of this coun- 
try, and kept for the sake of the curious foliage; the pre- 
sent, however, ìs the only one of which we have seen the 
inflotescence. Introduced by way of Holland about 173). 
The synonym adduced from Dr. Roxburgh's work, in the 
late edition of the Hortus Kewensis, seems to belong to a 
very distinct species, the leaves in that being longer than 
the stem, linear, caudate, not glaucous, and described 
as acquiring the height of 3 or 4 feet. It has altogether 
a very different aspect from zeylanica. The Sarmia spicata, 
adduced by Willdenow, plainly belongs to guineensis; the 
LimropE of Loureiro to neither. The english generic de- 
nomination is adopted from the use, to which the fibres of 
the foliage of one of the species are said to be applied in 
India. 
The genus borders hard upon Dracawa, and is princi- 
pally distinguished from it by not having fusiform filaments, 
nor leaves and stem supported by a frutescent caudex or 
trunk. Species of it belong to India, China, and, as said, 
to Guinea. Thunberg and Mr. Burchell found two at the 
Cape of Good Hope, one of which is very near to guineensis, 
if not the same, and the other to zeylanica. . 
The leaves of our plant scldom exceed 8-9 inches in 
height, and arc about one and a half over at the widest 
part, broadly subulate, involutely channelled, of a glau- 
cous hue, variegated by broad dark green undulated al- 
ternate bars which cross from one side to the other, bor- 
dered by a narrow cartilaginous rim. Stem round, upright, 
higher than the foliage; raceme numerously flowered, cylin- 
drically elongated, composed of closely scattered few- 
flowered shortly pedicled bracteate fascicles. Corolla 
greenish white, about an inch and half long, narrow, tu- 
bular, divided in six parts to the middle, tapered towards 
the base, connecting by a jointlike constriction with the 
pedicle; segments divaricate, narrow, linear, equal, slightly 
eeled, obtuse, finely curled at each edge below the middle, 
incurved at the apex, with a small point. Filaments patent, 
about one third shorter than the limb. Celis of the germen 
one-seeded. Style equal to the corolla, inclined, thicker than 
the filaments,  Stigmas three short obtuse lobules. 
The drawing was taken at the late Mr, John Hall's, at 
Notting Hill, U 
