656 Griccs : SPECIES OF HELICONIA 
figures and Burmann’s show that both were drawn from the spe- 
cies with scarlet branch-bracts which alone was referred to by Bur- 
mann. This Heliconia Bihai may be briefly described as follows: 
Heticonia Binal L. 
Bihai florum vasculis coccineis Plum. N. Pl. Am. Gen. 50. pi. 3. 
1703. : 
Musa Bihai L. Sp. Pl. 1043. 1753 (in part). 
Bihai Plum. Pl. Am. ed. Burm. 49. p/. 59. 17506. 
Hleliconia Bihai L. Mant. Pl. 211. 1767 (in part). Jacq. Pl. 
Rar. Hort. Schoen. 1: 26. 1797. Lam. Encyc. p/. rg8. 1823. 
L. C. Richard, Nova Acta, 15, suppl.: 22. p/. 8, zo. 1831. 
Whole plant 3-4 m. tall, erect, glabrous : leaves subdistichous, 
nearly 2 m. long, 50 cm. broad, round at both ends, long-petioled : 
inflorescence stiffly erect ; peduncle thick, as long or longer than 
the straight rachis, raising the inflorescence up among the leaves ; 
branch-bracts scarlet, broadly ovate, acuminate, mostly concealing 
the rachis : perianth-segments narrow, oblong linear ; flower-bracts 
ovate, acute. 
The habitat of this plant is uncertain, but it probably came 
either from one of the French West Indies, most likely Martinique, 
or from Guiana. 
This clears the way for the consideration of the other plants 
confused with H. Bihaz. The first was described by Swartz (Obs. 
Bot. 96. 1791). The description is mostly of flowers and is 
hardly definite enough for specific determination. Its bracts, 
however, are different in color from those of 7. Bi/ai and on that 
account it was renamed H. duteofusca by Jacquin. 
In Andrews’s Repository (f/. 640) is figured as H. Bihaia 
species with a sessile inflorescence whose bracts are purple with 
bright yellow edges. In general appearance it is similar to A. 
humilis, though taller. For this the name Heliconia purpurea © 
suggested. 
Another so-called Heliconia Bihai was figured by Loddiges 
(Bot. Cab. p/. 252) and by Edwards (Bot. Reg. 7. 374): Th . 
plant is about 3 meters high, with few leaves and erect habit like 
H. elongata. Inflorescence sessile, upright ; rachis red (visible), 
but little flexuose ; bracts narrow, ovate-lanceolate, hardly touch- 
ing each other, red with yellow margins ; flower broad and short, 
