Our drawing was made from a specimen that flowered at 
Kew in October, 1882. 
Descr. Acaulescent. Leaves lorate, twelve to twenty in 
a rosette, rather cartilaginous in texture, obtuse with a 
deltoid cusp, one and a half or two feet long, two or three 
inches broad at the middle, marked with copious slender 
transverse wavy vermiform lines on both surfaces, those of 
the face dark green on a pale green groundwork, those of 
the back bright purple on a purplish-green glossy ground. 
Pedunele central, a foot long, bright scarlet down the base, 
furnished with numerous small scariose deltoid bract-leaves 
of the same colour. lowers about twenty, aggregated 
into a globose capitulum, each subtended by a large bright 
red deltoid bract. Calyz of three, lanceolate, cartilaginous, 
sepals above an inch long, glabrous, free to the base, 
tinged yellow. Corolla white, much shorter than the calyx, 
with an oblong tube and three oblong segments. Stamens 
inserted in a single row at the throat of the corolla-tube ; 
filaments very short; anthers linear. Ovary ovoid; style 
elongated ; stigmas three, oblong, not spirally twisted.— 
J. G. Baker. 
Fig. 1, Calyx cut open so as to show the corolla; 2, corolla cut open so as toshow 
the stamens and pistil; 3, a stamen, viewed from the back; 4, summit of the style, 
with the three stigmas; 5, horizontal section of ovary :—all more or less enlarged. 
