Tab. 6757. 
TILLANDSIA STREPTOPHYLLA. 
Native of Mexico and Honduras. 
Nat. Ord. Bromet1ace®.—Tribe TILLANDSIEZ. 
Genus Tituanpsta, Linn. ; (Benth. et Hook. f. Gen. Pl. vol. iii. p. 669.) 
Titianpsta (Platystachys) streptophylla ; foliis dense rosulatis lineari-lanceolatis 
acuminatis insigniter spiraliter tortis semipedalibus et ultra utrinque dense 
persistenter albo-lepidotis basibus oblongis erectis ventricosis, pedunculo brevi 
foliis bracteiformibus rubellis imbricatis apicibus squarrosis, spicis pluribus 
densis distichis, bracteis oblongo-lanceolatis navicularibus lepidotis valde 
imbricatis, calyce incluso glabro, petalis lilacinis angustis calyce triplo longi- 
oribus, genitalibus exsertis. 
T. streptophylla, Schweid. in Hortic. Belg. 1836, vol: iii. p. 252, eum icone; 
Schlecht. in Linnea, vol. xviii. p. 427; EH. Morren in Belg. Hort. 1878, 
p. 296, t. 18,19; Hemsley in Biol. Cent. Amer. Bot. vol. iii. p. 322. 
T. circinnata, Schlecht. in Linnea, vol. xviii. p. 430. 
T. tortilis, 4. Brong. MSS. 
_ VairEsKa streptophylla, L. Morren Cat. Bromel. 1873, p. 17. 
This Bromeliad, from its remarkable habit, is quite a 
botanical curiosity. Like its neighbours, it grows on old 
trunks of trees. The bases of the leaves form a large 
pitcher round the base of the stem, and from this rise their 
long tapering leathery blades, which are rolled up spirally, 
and twisted in all directions in the most irregular fashion. 
The spikes and individual flowers do not show any striking 
difference from some of the best-known West Indian 
representatives of this large genus, such as 7’. polystachya 
and 1’. fasciculata. There is a specimen at the British 
Museum, gathered in the Mosquito territory as long ago as 
1744 by Captain Miller, but it was not described and named 
till a century later. It has long been cultivated sparingly 
as a curiosity in the Belgian, English, and French conser- 
vatories, and it has been found wild in Mexico by Schiede, 
Bourgeau, and Hahn. 
Our drawing was made from a plant that flowered at 
Kew last April. 
May lst, 1884, 
