Dbscr. Quite glabrous. Stem simple, or branched at the 

 base only. Leaves spreading on all sides, one to two and 

 a half feet long, four to six inches broad, linear oblong, 

 rounded at the apex, with a cuspidate point; beset along the 

 margin with short, rather distant, black spines, those on the 

 lower part recurved and closer-set, dull green, not glaucous 

 nor shining, nerveless, concave below 7 , not thick in texture. 

 Scape stout, erect, six to eight inches high, bearing a bril- 

 liantly coloured blood-red branched panicle, of large bracts 

 studded with small violet flow r ers ; rachis green, tinged witli 

 red ; floriferous branches short, thick, forming with the 

 dense bracts broadly ovoid masses. Bracts rather longer 

 than the flowers, subsquarrose, ovate, with long subulate 

 pungent apices. Calyx-lobes ovate, acuminate, pungent. 

 Petals twice as long, violet ; blade linear-oblong, with re- 

 curved acuminate apex, the claw with two scales at the 

 junction with the blade. Filaments filiform ; anthers linear. 

 Stigma subclavate, with a twisted apex. — /. D. H. 



Fig. 1. Flower. 2. Petal and stamens. 3. Ovary, style, and stigma : — 

 all magnified. 



