Tan. 4696. 
PUYA suLPHuUREA. 
Sulphur-flowered Puya. 
Nat. Ord. BRomELIAcER.—HExANnpRIA Monoaynta. 
Gen. Char. (Vide supra, Tas. 4309.) 
Puya sulphurea ; acaulis, foliis inermibus lineari-lanceolatis tenui-acuminatis ob- 
scure nervosis basi angustatis canaliculatis, spica solitaria pedunculata (una 
cum pedunculo folia subsuperantibus) strobiliformi apice acuminata, bracteis 
inferioribus foliaceis, superioribus (floriferis) ovatis anguste acuminatis erec- 
tis concavis dense imbricatis purpureo-rufis apice viridibus, floribus sessili- 
bus sulphureis longe exsertis, petalis squama bifida prope basin, staminibus 
subinclusis. 
Pura sulphurea. Hort. Hernhauss. 
Although this is far inferior in point of beauty and of sizé 
to the splendid Puya Altensteinii, var. gigantea, figured at our 
Tab. 4309, it is nevertheless a handsome-looking plant, and has 
the merit of flowering in the winter months (with us in Decem- 
ber). We received it from the Royal Garden of Hernhaussen, 
under the name we have retained ; but who is the author of the 
name, or whether or not anywhere published, and even regarding 
the native country, we are ignorant. The genus (of Molina) is 
the same as Pourretia of Ruiz and Pavon, Pitcairnia of other 
authors, from which latter genus it is, according to Schultes, dis- 
tnguished, “ praeter habitum, in calyce perfecte infero, plus minus 
subspiraliter convoluto, in antheris linearibus, incumbentibus, in 
capsule valvulis septiferis, et in seminibus compressis membrana 
brevi cinctis.” We are not in a condition to verify the majority 
of these characters; but we are satisfied that the whole of the 
Bromeliaceous family requires a careful revision, which is unfor- 
tunately difficult from such dried specimens as exist in our 
Herbarium ; and besides comparatively few species are found in 
cultivation, by no means so many as deserve to be. Of the pre- 
sent genus, only five species are taken up in Schultes, and the 
present is certainly not among them. 
FEBRUARY Ist, 1853. 
