Tab. 5846. 

 DRACLENA CYLINDRICA. 



Cylindric-spihed Dracaena. 



Nat. Ord. ASPARAGINASE. HEXANDRIA MoNOGTNIA. 



Gen. Char. ( Vide supra, Tab. 5248.) 



Dracena cylindrica ; caule erecto indiviso folioso, foliis sursum gradatim 

 majoribus patenti-recurvis e petiolo lato obovato-lanceolatis abrupte 

 acuminatis, nervis obscuris, spica sessili terminali amentiformi densa 

 cylindrica obtusa, bracteis ovato-lanceolatis acuminatis tubum angustum 

 perianthii tequantibus, pedicello brevi apice tumido, perianthii laciriis 

 anguste linearibus albis recurvis filamenta medio paulo incrassiita 

 requantibus, antheris parvis flavis, stylo gracillimo, stigmate obscure 3- 

 lobo. A 



Very closely allied to Dracaena bicolor (Tab. nost. 5248) but 

 a far handsomer plant, three to five feet high, with a strict 

 erect trunk, bearing a profusion of spreading and recurved 

 leaves, which becoming gradually larger upwards give it 

 a very noble appearance ; the leaves are further much larger 

 and more obovate than in B. bicolor, with broader petioles, 

 and the dense terminal spike is much larger, sessile, quite 

 amentiform. The pedicel of the flower and its tube are 

 more slender, as are the perianth-segments; the bracts, 

 stamens, and ovary are similar in both. 



D. cylindrica is a native of the Old Calabar Eiver, on the 

 West Coast of Tropical Africa, where it was discovered by 

 Mr. Gustav Mann, when collector for the Eoyal Gardens, the 

 most successful botanical explorer who ever visited the mala- 

 rious West Coast of Africa, and who is now an assistant con- 

 servator of Forests in Bhotan, under the Indian Govern- 

 ment. It was subsequently found by that zealous and 

 enlightened missionary, the Eev. W. C. Thomson, m the 

 same district, by whom it was introduced into the Roval 

 july 1st, 1870. 



