represented on that plate agrees precisely with specimens 
from Trinidad, Tobago and British Guiana, all of which 
have bracts that are only half the size of those in the plant 
now depicted, have quite short flowering spikes and have 
uniformly smaller leaves. 
At Kew A. tetragona is grown in a tropical house. It 
flowers at various seasons according to the age of the plant 
and the treatment it is given; the plant from which the 
present figure was made flowered in September, 1908, but 
an even finer example came into flower in May, 1909, the 
head of flowers, borne on a single stem nearly 4 ft. high, 
consisting of 13 spikes, each from 4-7 in. long. The 
plant in question was two years old, and had been raised 
from a cutting ; older plants do not flower so well. A rich 
loamy soil and an abundant supply of water at the roots, 
with a tropical temperature, are the most suitable conditions. 
Descriprion.—Shrubby ; branches round, hollow, smooth, 
up to ¥ in. thick. Leaves ovate-lanceolate to widely ovate- 
elliptic, abruptly narrowed to a cuneate or decurrent base, 
apex shortly or considerably acuminate, margin faintly 
undulate-crenate, 8-10 in. long, 4-6 in. wide, papery, 
glabrous above, whitish pubescent in bud, but soon becomes 
glabrous beneath ; petiole 13-2 in. long. Spikes usually 
3—5-nate, occasionally solitary, rarely 9—13-nate at the ends 
of the branches, the terminal 6-7 in. long, 2 in. thick 
without the corollas, very dense; bracts ovate, acute or 
subacuminate, 5-6 lin. long, greenish-brown, firm, woolly 
white at the base and villous along the margins, else- 
where glabrous, markedly striate below, faintly glandular ; 
bracteoles lanceolate, white villous, 5 lin. long. Sepals 
scarious, lanceolate, acute, 4 in. long, slightly villous at the 
tips. Corolla brilliant pink, puberulous; tube narrowed 
above the base, thence gradually widening to the limb and 
there 3-4 lin. wide; upper lip $ in. long, bifid, lobes acute, 
3 lin. long; lower lip gradually narrowed from a wide 
limb, $-1 in. long, 4—5 lin. wide, the lateral lobes reduced 
to a margin | lin. wide, ending upwards in a small tooth. 
Anthers 3-4 lin. long, finely pilose on the back. 
Fig. 1, bract; 2, bracteole; 3, flower; 4, anther; 5, ovary; 6, stigma :— 
all enlarged. 
