Descr. Acaulescent. Produced leaves nine to twelve to a 

 tuft, sub-erect, lorate, rigidly coriaceous in texture, the 

 largest reaching a length of one and a half or two feet, 

 one and a half or two inches broad at the middle, dilated to 

 three inches at the clasping base, thinly white lepidote over 

 both surfaces, the face dark green, the back paler and more 

 distinctly striated, decorated with small scattered round 

 white dots, but without any distinct transverse bars, the tip 

 deltoid-cuspidate, the marginal prickles very miuute. Scape 

 about a foot long, whitish, glabrous, furnished at the top with 

 three or four large erecto-patent, bright red lanceolate bracts, 

 and below these, in the part hidden by the imbricating 

 leaves, a few others which are adpressed to it and paler in 

 colour. Spike lax, pendulous, three or four inches long, 

 composed of ten to eighteen subsessile flowers. Ovary 

 oblong, glabrous, bright green, half on inch long, with 

 numerous narrow parallel vertical ribs and grooves. Sepals 

 linear-oblong, horny, three quarters of an inch long, naked, 

 pale green, tipped with violet. Petals above an inch 

 longer than the sepals, Ungulate, green, tipped with 

 violet, distinctly scaled at the base. Stamens as long as the 

 petals ; anthers oblong, orange-yellow, a sixth of an inch 

 long. Stigmas exserted, a sixth of an inch long, much 

 twisted. — J. G. Baker. 



Fig. 1, A single petal and stamen; fig, 2, sulcate ovary, style and stigmas: — 

 natural size. 



