Tas. 5090. 
BILLBERGIA Lrsonrana. 
Libon’s Billbergia. 
Nat. Ord. BroMELIACE®.—HEXANDRIA Monoeynia. 
Gen. Char. (Vide supra, Tas. 4756.) 
BrutBercra Liboniana ; surculosa, foliis radicalibus ligulatis acutis mucronatis 
margine serrulatis supra lete yiridibus subtus obscure albido-furfuraceis, 
bracteis subulatis appressis, spica laxa 6-10-floro, 
scapo erecto bracteato, 
floribus erectis, sepalis erectis rubris, petalis calyce duplo longioribus erectis 
Ibidis intus laminis duabus 
lineari-oblongis intense purpureo-ceeruleis basi a 
elongatis apice dentatis instructis et ad basin squamis duabus obovatis longe 
fimbriatis. 
Bitiperera Liboniana. De Jonghe, 
icone. Lem. Jard. Fleur. v. 3. p. 197. 
p. 195, cum tc. 
Journ. d’Hort. Prat. Mars, 1851, cum 
Planch. Flore des Serres, v. 10. 
Belgian gardens, where it is 
stated to have been introduced from the vicinity of Rio de Ja- 
neiro, by “le voyageur naturaliste Libon,” after whom 1t has 
received its specific name. It is a plant of some beauty, and 
is another plant added to those Bromeliacee which are highly de- 
serving of cultivation in our hothouses. Where the collection of 
these (in amount of species, we mean) 1S considerable, some or 
other is in flower at all seasons of the year, and not a few in the 
depth of winter. The drawing was taken from a plant in Kew 
Gardens, which flowered in August, 1858. 
Duscr. The species is small in stature, compared to many of 
the Bromeliacee, scarcely more than a foot in height, indepen- 
dent of the scape. The plant is sarmentose, and these runners, 
by which the species is easily increased, are nearly half an inch 
thick, terete, scaly with small, rigid, broad, subulate, spinescent, 
abortive leaves. From these runners tufts of foliage arise, with 
no visible stem: the lowest ones are squamiform, like those of 
DECEMBER Ist, 1858. 
Received at Kew from the 
