| 
, 
. 
tusely keeled beneath, the margin cartilaginous and. minutely 
denticulate ; scape rising from the centre of the foliage, gradually 
elongating till it has attained a height of twenty feet, one and a 
half or two inches diameter, erect, but not strict, clothed all the 
way with subulate, leafy scales, the lowest ones passing gradually 
into leaves. Spike cylindrical, terminal, oblong, simple, six to 
eight inches long. Flowers often two together, numerous, erect, 
subtended by small bracts. Perianth about an inch long, in- 
fundibuliform, green: the ¢wde a little contracted above. the 
ovary ; /imd of six, spreading, oval, obtuse segments. Sfamens 
inserted some way down the tube, yellow, tinged with red: ji/a- 
ments twice as long as the perianth, stout, erect; anthers large, 
versatile. 
Fig. 1. Much reduced flowering-plant. 2. Portion of a leaf. 3. A flowering 
spike :—nat. size. 
8 
