packages of tobacco. These ropes have a breaking strain 
of 3 tons to the square inch; they are, however, very 
sensitive to attack by alkalis. The fibre of the Makim- 
beira is less well known and is of a softer and poorer 
quality ; attention to this fibre and to the plant itself was 
first called in 1902 by His Majesty’s Consul at Bahia in a 
letter to the Imperial Institute. In 1903 living plants of 
the Carod and the Makimbeira were received at Kew from 
the Imperial Institute; the latter, which flowered for the 
first time in a tropical greenhouse in September, 1909, 
provided the material for the figure now given. NV. concolor 
has proved, as compared with Bromeliads generally, to be 
of very slow growth under the artificial conditions of a 
tropical collection; possibly under natural conditions it 
may thrive more luxuriantly. At Kew it is planted ina 
pot in peaty soil and kept in a warm moist house where it 
receives shade from bright sunshine. 
_ Descriprion.—/erb; stem very short. Leaves 5-8, 
linear, acuminate, thick and sheathing at the base, firm, 
white-lepidote, 14-2 ft. long, 1 in. wide; spines 5-8 lin. 
apart, 2 lin. long, flattened at the base, subulate, incurved 
or occasionally straight, at times absent towards the apex. 
of the leaf. Raceme terminal, shorter than the leaves; 
peduncle white-woolly; bracts lanceolate, white-woolly, 
the lowest 4 in. long, gradually decreasing in size upwards ; 
pedicels under } in. long, spreading. Calyx scarlet, ovoid, 
smooth, over 4 in. long; lobes short, blunt. Petals violet, 
oblong-spathulate, blunt, 3 in. long; basal scales 1 lin. long, 
acerate. Stamens nearly as long as petals; filaments stout; 
anthers dorsifixed, oval, white, 1 lin. lone; pollen-grains 
elliptic, with a single longitudinal groove and without 
pores. Ovary inferior ; cells few-ovuled ; style as long as 
the stamens, with three short spirally twisted stigmatic 
arms, ; 
Fig. 1, vertical secti flower wi s and stamens 
~ > ction of i i =) 
“9 r with inner perianth segments § 
2, an inner perianth segment; 3 and 4, anthers; 5, style-arms ; 
6, a 7, sketch of an entire plant :—all enlarged except T, which is much 
