Tab. 7170. 

 APHELANDRA Blanchetiana. 



Native of Brazil. 



Nat. Ord. Acanthace*:. Tribe Justicie.e. 

 Genus Aphelandra, Br. (Benth. & Hook.f. Gen. Plant, vol. ii. p. 1 103). 



APHELANDBA (Strobilorhachis) Blanchetiana ; glaberrima, caule eras jo eh to, 

 foliia ovatis acntis basi in petiolum anpustatis multinerviis, spica sesfcili, 

 bracteis li-pollicaribus erecto-patentibus lineari-oblongis mucronatis 

 supra medium sanguineis, bracteolis parvis eetaceis, sepalis scariosis 

 aequilongis dorsali hneari subacute, lateralibus lineari-lanceolatis acumi- 

 nata quam anticis subduplo lalioribus, corolla? aureas tubo sepalis 

 aequilongo lente curvo bracteis breviore, fauce brevi inflata, labio superiore 

 erecto subrecurvo oblongo obtuse 2-lobo, inferioris asquilongi lobis lineari- 

 oblongis obtusis revolutis lateralibus angnstioribus, antheris exsertis laxe 

 lanuginosis, stylo exserto, stigmate parvo infundibulare ore iutegro 

 ciliolato. 



A. amoena, Bull. Cat. New &c. Plants, 1888, p. 7. 



Strobilorhachis Blancheliana, Nees in Mart. Fl. Bras/1, vol. ix. p. 89. 



From a comparison of Mr. Bull's plant with a specimen in 

 the Kew Herbarium of Strobilorhachis Blanchetiana of Nees, 

 so named by that author himself, I think there can be no 

 doubt of their identity, though there is a difference in the 

 number and closeness of the nerves of the leaf, these being 

 more numerous and stronger in the cultivated plant. The 

 leaves are the same in size and form, are similarly variegated 

 and are narrowed below into a winged base or petiole. Iu 

 Martiu's Flora Brasiliensis, Nees describes the stem ns very 

 stout and herbaceous ; this is remarkably the case in the 

 cultivated plant, the stem of which is as thick as the 

 forefinger, and upwards of two feet in length ; the leaves 

 are described as with twenty pairs of nerves, but there are 

 not so many in the dried specimen, and there are more 

 in Mr. Bull's plant, in which, too, they are more spreading. 

 The spikes are described as three, sessile, in A. Blanchetiana, 

 the median a foot long and the two lateral smaller. Tho 

 bracts are identical in size and shape in both, and are de- 

 scribed by Nees as rose-coloured and the flowers as yellow. 



The genus Strobilorhachis was established by Link, 



Jdki 1st, 1891. 



