Tab. 5416. 



HELICONIA BREVISPATHA. 



Short-spathed Heliconia. 



Nat. Orel. Musace.<e. — Pentandria Monogynia. 



Gen. Char. Perigonii epigyni foliola exteriors sequalia, basi inter se concres- 

 centia, interiora lateralis subconformia, approximata, genitalia amplectentia, 

 posticum nanum. Stamina 5, sexto postico abortiente, basi perigonii adnata. 

 Ovarium inferum triloculare. Ovula in loculis solitaria, e basi axeos adscen- 

 dentia, anatropa. Stylus filiformis ; stigma depressiusculum, obsolete sex-lobum. 

 Capsula subdrupacea, tricocca ; coccis osseis, indehiscentibus. Semina in coccis 

 solitaria, obovato-subglobosa, basifixa, testa ab endocarpio vix solubili. Embryo 

 orthotropus, linearis, in axi albuminis farinaceo-carnosi, extremitate radiculari 

 urLbilicura attingente, infera. — Herbse Americana tropica, foliis longe petiolalis, 

 petiolis lasi vaginantibus, scapum radicalem scepe velantibus, spathis pluribus dis- 

 tichis, in axilla jioriferis. Endl. 



Heliconia brevispatha; foliis oblongis brevipetiolatis glaberrimis, spathis 

 paucis brevibus valde acuminatis coloratis, floribus albis spatha longioribus, 

 sepalo nano ovato-acuminato. 



Heliconia aurantiaca. Hort. Versch. 



The species of the genus Heliconia are more numerous than 

 have been supposed, and do not seem to have attracted the at- 

 tention of the horticulturist or the botanist so much as they de- 

 serve. The present species we cannot find anywhere described nor 

 noticed, except that it has come to us in 1861 from M. Ver- 

 schaffelt's garden establishment in Ghent, under the name of 

 "H. aurantiaca" an appellation scarcely suited to it. Its native 

 country is probably South America. In a warm stove with us 

 it produced readily its singular flowers, in the summer both of 

 1862 and 1863. 



Descr. This is a small species compared with several of the 

 genus, scarcely exceeding three feet in height. Leaves little 

 more than a span long, one and a half inch wide, oblong, rather 

 obtuse at the base, much acuminated at the apex, quite glabrous. 

 Petioles short, but their sheathing bases very much elongated, 



DECEMBEE 1ST, 1863. 



