Tab. 5502. 

 BILLBERGIA olbns. r ^ /V ^ 



Putrid-smelling Billbergia. 



Nat. Ord. liuo.MELiACE.t;. — Hexamjuia Moxogkxia. 



Gen. Char. Perigonii superi sexpartiti lucin'ue exleriores calyciuaj, aequales, 

 ecarinatae, ereetaa, v. spiraliter convolutae, aristatas vel mutica:, apice hinc oblique 

 dilatatae, interiores petaloideae, exterioribus raulto longiores, apice patentes vel 

 erectae, intus basi squamosa^ v. bicristatae, ravius nudae. Stamina 6, epigyna ; 

 filamenla filiformia, tria plerumque perigonii laciniis interioribus adnata; anthem 

 ovatae, dorso afiixae, incumbentes vel suberectae. Ovarium inferum, triloculare. 

 Ovula plurima e loculorum angulo centrali pendula, anatropa. Stylus filiformis; 

 stigmata 3, petaloidea, convoluta, v. linearia crispa. Bacca subglobosa, trilocu- 

 laris. Semina plura, nuda v. umbilicum filo gracili appendiculata. — Herbae Ame- 

 ricana tropica, stspins super arborum truncis pseudoparasiticce, etteetpa eel scapi- 

 gerce, foliis ligulatis, linearibus vel ensiformibus, ut plurimum spinuloso-serratis, 

 floribus spicatis paniculatis vel racemoso-paniculatis, sipathis jloralibus nunc uitllis, 

 nunc partis v. amplis, coloratis. Endl. 



Billbergia olens; caule inclinato brevi cicatricato, foliis numerosis termiua- 

 libus erecto-patentibus subpedalibus ligulatis canaliculars spinuloso-serratis 

 basi arete irnbricatis subventricosis apice mucronato-pungentibus, floralibus 

 multo brevioribus erectis coccineis, spica oblonga sessili foliis floralibus raulto 

 breviore, bracteata, bracteis late ovatis acuminatis arete irnbricatis pallide 

 viridibus rubro-tinctis, corollis paululura exsertis intense purpureis, apice 

 subpatentibus, unguibus subbilamellatis. 



This, to us, previously unknown Bromeliaceous plant was re- 

 ceived at Kew from Dr. Kegel, of the Imperial Botanic Garden 

 of St. Petersburg, in 1856, and produced its rich purple, but 

 very much concealed flowers and brilliantly-coloured floral leaves, 

 in a warm stove the following year. It seems quite to accord 

 in habit and in generic character with the Billbergia omenta of 

 Graham, in Bot. Mag. t. 2892, but is far more beautiful in the 

 colour of the corollas, and still more of the floral leaves. It is 

 to be regretted that no locality has been given with the plant, 

 but no doubt it is a native of tropical America, where the spe- 

 cies of the family to which it belongs are great ornaments to the 

 trunks of the forest trees, and where they are often intermixed 



APRIL 1st, 1S6o. 



