so called, is formed of large sheathing green scales, having a long 
slender pomt. ‘The /eaves, three to four, are quite at the sum- 
mit, and are from one and a half to two feet and more long, 
oblong, gradually acuminate, of a rich deep velvety green above, 
beneath of a coppery metallic-purple colour, which suggested 
the name of metallica to Messrs. Planchon and Linden. The 
spike of flowers is terminal, erect, about a span long, consisting of 
about six large green spear-shaped but conduplicate, bluntly 
caricated bracteas or spathes, the lowest one with three flowers 
in the axil, the rest with two or one. Pedicels one to one-and- 
a-half inch long, green, erect. Flowers large, handsome, three 
inches long, cylindrical, slightly angular, and a little curved ; the 
three sepads or outer portions of the perianth approximate and 
slightly conjoined, scarlet, the acuminated apices only free, white, 
erecto-patent. ‘The two perfect petals are scarlet to the apex and 
are convolute around the stamens and style: the third, or 
dwarfed pefa/ is a small, white, ovate scale. Stamens five. Fila- 
ments subfusiform, terminated by long, linear, white, or sub- 
sagittiform anthers ; style very much resembling a filament of 
the stamens, but acute. 
