Tas. 4832. 
AKCHMEA MUCRONIFLORA. 
Spiny-petaled Aichmea. 
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Nat. Ord. BRoMELIACE®.—HEXANDRIA Monoeynia. 
Gen. Char. (Vide supra, Tas. 4293.) 
AicumBa mucroniflora ; foliis lato-ligulatis obtusis cum apiculo canaliculatis 
cartilagineis spinuloso-marginatis basi late yentricosis, racemo denso spi- 
cato brevi-elliptico, bracteis universalibus amplis foliaceis coloratis (coccineis) 
denticulatis acutissimis, floribus glomerato-fasciculatis, bracteis partialibus 
calycibus petalisque mucrone spiniformt atro-fusco terminatis, filamentis al- 
ternis petalis confluentibus, fructibus ceeruleis. 
The genus Aechmea was so named by the authors of the 
‘Flora Peruviana,’ in consequence of the rigid points of the 
calyx of the flowers. In the present species the same rigid 
points exist on the leaves, on the partial bracts, on the sepals of 
the calyx, and on the petals. By this latter character the pre- 
sent species (a native of Demerara, and sent to us from thence 
by His Excellency Governor Barkly,) may be alone distinguished 
from Atchmea Mertensii, of the same country, figured at our 
Tab. 3186. There the petals are red, plane, narrow linear-lan- 
ceolate, gradually acuminated, lax and free : here the petals are 
connivent, oblong, concave, orange-yellow, streaked with brown 
on the back, and suddenly terminating in the sharp, hard, dark- 
brown mucro: the spike too, in our plant, is infinitely shorter 
than in _Z. Mertensii, and not disposed to be compound ; and 
the stamen that is opposite to the petal has the filament com- 
bined with it for nearly its whole length. In both, the spike 
eventually becomes a mass of mazarine-blue pyramidal berries. 
—TJt flowered with us, for the first time, in September, 1854. 
Descr. Leaves radical, in our plant not exceeding a foot long, 
broad-ligulate, obtuse, with a spiny green acumen, cartilaginous, 
FEBRUARY Ist, 1855, 
