Tab. 5542. 

 CALATHEA tubispatha. 



Tubular-spathed Calathea. 



Nat. Onl. Marantace.e. — Monandria Moxooynia. 

 Gen. Char. (Vide supra, Tab. 4973.) 



Calathea tubispatha ; acaulis, csespitosa, glaberrima, foliis obovato-ellipticis 

 leviter obliquis breviter acuminatis v. acutatis basi obtusis integris v. bre- 

 vissime subcordatis, petiolis vaginantibus glabris folio subaequilongis, scapo 

 gracili, spica terminali pauciflora anguste cylindracea obliqua, bracteis 2 vel 

 3 arete convolutis obtusis breviter et oblique apiculatis v. obtusis interioribus 

 inclusis, perianthii flavi tubo incluso, lobo postico rotundato subintegro 

 antico (labello) emarginato v. retuso. — Forma i foliis maculis brunneis 

 gvminatis biseriatim notatis. 



This is the plant referred to in our last Number (Tab. 5535) 

 as a second undescribed Calathea introduced by Messrs. Veiteli 

 from Western Tropical South America, where it was collected by 

 Mr. Pearce. It is a very graceful species, and its habit and 

 prettily blotched leaves cannot fail to render it a valuable addi- 

 tion to our variegated stove plants. The spike is remarkable in 

 the genus, being narrowly cylindrical, slightly directed to one 

 side, the outer bract equalling or exceeding the rest, each closely 

 convolute and subtending about two rather pretty, though small 

 yellow flowers. We have not the opportunity at present of 

 making a detailed analysis of the expanded flower. 



Descr. Ccespitose, about one and a half to two feet high. 

 Leaves obovate-elliptical, shortly acuminate or cuspidate, obtuse 

 and entire or very narrowly cordate at the base, slightly oblique, 

 firmly though thinly membranous, with a row on each side of the 

 midrib of somewhat rhomboidal or oblong, deep brown blotches in 

 pairs ; around these blotches the green colour of the leaf is some- 

 what paler than along the midrib and margin, five to eight inches 

 in length. Scape slender, erect, glabrous, about one foot high, 

 sheathed below by the subtending leaf. Spike oblique, about one 

 inch long, few-flowered, narrowly cylindrical ; bracts two or three, 

 outer bract equalling or exceeding the rest, broadly obovate or 



NOVEMBER 1ST, 1835. 



