take to be merely a variety of the widely-diffused Aechmea 
nudicaulis of Grisebach, the Bromelia nudicaulis of Linneeus. 
Dzscr. Tufts sessile, crowded. Leaves about twenty in 
a rosette, lorate, rigid in texture, erect, two or three feet 
long, three inches broad at the dilated base, one and a half 
or two inches at the middle, rounded with a small cusp at 
the apex, green and glabrous on the channelled face, 
obscurely lepidote and lineate on the back, the edge 
bordered by minute ascending horny teeth. Peduncle 
about a foot long, with several small ascending lanceolate, 
adpressed scariose leaves, the upper tinted red. Flowers 
numerous, tightly packed in a dense simple oblong spike 
two or three inches long; bracts one to each flower, bright 
red, membranous in texture, the lower ones lanceolate 
acute, as long as the calyx, the upper ones shorter and 
obtuse, with a cusp. Calyx not more than half an inch 
long including the ovary, which is oblong, glabrous, and 
bright orange-yellow ; sepals orbicular-deltoid, horny, im- 
bricated, with a large oblique cusp. ~ Petals lingulate, 
obtuse, lemon-yellow, twice as long as the sepals, scaled 
inside at the base. Stamens included; filaments and 
anthers both linear, lemon-yellow, the latter dorsifixed and 
erect. Ovary many in a cell, central, horizontal; style 
filiform ; stigmas linear, spirally twisted.—J. G. Baker. 
Fig. 1, the whole plant, reduced ; 2, a sepal, enlarged; 3, a complete flower, 
with its bract, natural size ; 4, a petal, with the stamen attached to it; 5, one of 
the basal scales of the petal; 6, two views of an anther; 7, stigmas ; 8, horizontal 
section of ovary; 9, an ovule:—all more or less enlarged. 
