Tas. 4415. 
VRIESIA cGiavucopHyLia. 
Glaucous-leaved Vriesia. 
Nat. Ord. BromELiaceE®.—HEXANDRIA Monog@ynta. 
Gen. Char. (Vide supra, Tas. 4382.) 
Vrigsta glaucophylla ; foliis longissime subulatis glaucis subfarinosis, scapo 
superne ramoso, ramis e basi ad apicem disticho-bracteatis spicas formantes, 
bracteis ovato-lanceolatis conduplicato-carinatis acutis unifloris inferioribus 
coloratis, floribus semiexsertis, petalis pupurascentibus filamentis purpureo- 
maculatis brevioribus. 
From the interior of Santa Martha, New Grenada, whence it 
was sent by our Collector, Mr. Purdie, to the Royal Gardens of 
Kew. Suspended from a piece of wire from the beam of the 
Orchideous stove, it produced its flowering spikes in August, 
1848. IL refer it to Vriesta of Dr. Lindley, with which it quite 
agrees in habit ; but the whole family of Bromeliacee require a 
careful revision, which should be accomplished through the aid 
of living specimens, were it possible. ‘They lose much of their 
character when dried for the Herbarium, and are indeed too 
much neglected by travellers. 3 
Duscr. A moderate-sized, Aloe-like plant, without stem : the 
leaves imbricated, round a rather tumid base, spreading, re- 
curved, a foot or a foot and a half long, from a broad, and 
rather concave base, gradually: tapering into a very long slender, 
acuminated point, of a firm texture and of a bluish colour, the 
effect, as it would appear, of a subfarinose or flocculose clothing. 
From the centre of the plant arises the scape, red, about as thick 
as one’s finger, distantly bracteated, a foot and more long, above 
divided into four or five branches or spies, a span in length, 
clothed from the base to the summit, with large, distichous, 
complicato-carinate, very acute, closely imbricated, ovato-lanceo- 
late, rigid bracteas, the loyer ones red, somewhat flocculose, the 
rest green, tinged with yellow and red. Each bears a flower, of 
which one only is quite in perfection at a time upon each spike, 
- DECEMBER Isr, 1848. 
