paratively soft and pliable in texture, persistently glaucous 

 on both surfaces, tipped with a soft brownish spine an inch 

 long, closely margined with minute unequal deltoid brownish 

 prickles. Peduncle stiffly erect, three or four times as 

 long as the leaves, furnished with copious erect lanceolate- 

 acuminate scariose bract-leaves. Spike oblong, one and a 

 half or two feet long, half a foot in diameter when fully 

 expanded ; flowers in pairs, subtended by a large lanceo- 

 late-acuminate scariose bract. Perianth, including the 

 ovary, an inch and a half long, green outside ; segments 

 oblong, brown inside, above half an inch long, twice as long 

 as the funnel-shaped tube. Stamens three or four times as 

 long as the perianth-segments. Style developed after the 

 stamens, finally reaching up to the anthers. — J. G. Baker. 



Kg. 1, Margin of leaf ; 2, a flower cut open ; 3, horizontal section of 

 ovary -.—all enlarged. 



