Tas. 4991, 
PUYA VIRESCENS. 
Greenish-flowered Puya. 
Nat. Ord. BromeLtace®.—HEXANDRIA MoNoOGYNIA. 
Gen. Char. Perigonii liberi sexpartiti lacinie exteriores calycine, squales, 
subconvolute, interiores petaloidesw, inferne convolute, apice patentim reflex, 
marcescendo spiraliter convolute. Stamina 6, hypogyna; jilamenta subulata ; 
anthere incumbentes, lineares, basi emarginate. Ovarium liberum, trigonum, 
triloculare. Ovuda plurima, in loculorum angulo centrali biseriata, horizontalia, 
cartilaginea, pyramidato-trigona, trilocularis, loculicido-trivalvis. Semina plu- 
rima, compressa, hinc anguste membranaceo-marginata.—Herbe in America tro- 
pica et Australia extratropica monticole; caule simplici, interdum subarboreo, 
Solioso ; foliis angustis, spinosis ; spicis bracteatis, solitariis vel paniculatis. Endl. 
Poya virescens ; acaulis, foliis inermibus lineari-lanceolatis breviter tenuissime 
acuminatis striatis basi dilatato-ventricosis, spica solitaria pedunculata (una 
cum pedunculo folia superantibus) laxa subeomposita bracteata, bracteis 
ovatis acuminatis superioribus obtusis pedunculi longissime acuminatis, flo- 
ribus subsessilibus, petalis pallide-luteo-virescentibus lato-spathulatis limbo 
patente ungue nudo, filamentis cum ungue confluentibus, ovario supero. 
A native probably of Venezuela or New Granada, communi- 
cated from the Belgian Gardens under the name of “ Puya,” to 
which genus we are willing to refer it, until the very difficult 
family of Bromeliacee shall have been judiciously revised by some 
competent authority. The materials for such a work are, com- 
paratively speaking, but small in the herbarium, because they are 
difficult and troublesome plants to dry. Happily they are worthy 
of cultivation, and many unnamed species are, we believe, now in 
our stoves in the English and Belgian gardens. ‘The present 
species flowered with us in March 1857. 
Descr. A stemless plant of moderate size. Leaves one and a 
half to two feet long, from a dilated and somewhat ventricose 
base, broad-linear, sublanceolate, tapering rather suddenly to 
a short but finely acuminated point; the margin quite entire 
and unarmed, the colour a deep dull-green, the surface striated 
with close-placed parallel lines. Scape two feet and more high, 
leafy below, these leaves gradually passing into closely-placed 
JULY Ist, 1857. 
