Jii86 Dr Graham\s Description of New or Rare Plants. 



Description — Shrxib erect, aphyllous ; branches scarcely angled, erect ; 

 bark brown and wrinkled, on the young shoots woolly. Phyllodia 

 (24 inches long, 4 lines broad,) lanceolato-falcate, curved downwards, 

 nerved, spreading, stiff, dull green, somewhat woolly, having one gland 

 towards the base on the upper edge, mucronate, mucro rigid, afterwards 

 withering. Stipules small, subulate, withering. Capitula geminate (some- 

 times solitary at the jioints of the branches), axillary, globular, flowers 

 in each numerous, one spreading to each side on a peduncle^ which is as 

 long as the stamens, and slightly villoUvS. Bractece ovate, villous, ci- 

 liated, marcescent, one sheathing the base of each peduncle, another be- 

 low each flower, the latter attenuated at the base, and more delicate 

 than the former. Calyx colourless, transparent, adpressed, 5-cleft, seg- 

 ments blunt, ciliated. Corolla smooth, twice as long as the calyx, S-cleft ; 

 tube transparent, colourless ; limb yellowish, spreading, segments point- 

 ed, concave. Stamens (three lines long) yellow; anthers small, bilobular, 

 lobes round, bursting by a transverse line on their outer sides. Pistil 

 awanting in most of the flowers, yellow ; stigma minute ; style rather 

 longer than the stamens, oblique ; germen obscurely pubescent, oval. 



We received this plant through the kindness of Mr Alton from the Royal 

 garden at Kew, in the beginning of 1828. It had been received there 

 from Mr Cunningham under the name now given; and Mr Cunningham 

 says of it, in Field's Memoirs, that it is " a shrub frequent on rocky 

 barren ranges in the interior," between the colony of Port Jackson and 

 the settlement of Bathurst. It flowered freely with us in January and 

 February. 



This species probably bears a great resemblance to A. multinervia, DC. only 

 known to me, however, by the descriptions in his Memoirs on the Legu- 

 minoscB, and in the Prodromus ; but it differs in being provided with sti- 

 pulae, and in the young branches being less angular. The peduncles, 

 too, are probably longer, and the marginal gland perhaps nearer the base 

 of the phyllodium. Further, the woolliness of the phyllodia, and more 

 particularly of the young branches, could scarcely have been overlooked ; 

 and as it is not mentioned, I presume it is awanting in A. multinervia. 



Billbergia iridifolia. 



B. iridifolia; foliis lanceolato-ensiformibus, undulatis, acuminatis, inferne 

 spinuloso-serralis ; spica pendula, floribus remotis ; bracteis longitu- 

 dine florum, lanceolatis, pedicello adnatis. 

 B. iridifolia, Bot. Reg. 1068. 

 Bromelia iridifolia, Nees ^ Martins, Sprengel. 



Description Plant without stem. Leaves (2 feet long) lanceolato-sword- 



shaped, undulate, quite entire, excepting towards the base, where they 

 have a few distant spinulose teeth, deep green above, whitish below, 

 from minute indistinct scales. Spike (with the peduncle, 1 foot 3 inches 

 long) terminal, pendulous, bracteate. Bractece ovato-lanceolate, acumi- 

 nate, clasping the lower part of the peduncle where there are no flowers, 

 nearer the apex lanceolate, arising from the pedicels, smaller upwards, 

 as long as the flowers, excepting towards the apex. Rachis angular, 

 flexuose, as well as the bracteae of uniform red colour, and nearly smooth, 

 the lower bracteie only being tipped with minute white tomentum. 

 Flowers (2| inches long, about 14 in a spike,) distant, divaricated, on 

 very short pedicels. Calg^v (9 lines long) 3-parted, slightly villous, seg- 

 ments blunt, uniform, adpressed, yellowish-rose coloured, tinged purple 

 at the apex. Corolla 3-parted, segments uniform, projecting an inch be- 

 yond the calyx, yellow, and beautifully tipped with lilac, the two upper 

 segments reflected, the lower revolute. Stamens arising from the base of 

 the corolla, exserted, straight, having two cucuUate, fimbriated, necta- 

 riferous scales on the inner side of the base of each ; filaments inserted 

 into the back of the anthers ; anthers orange coloured, linear, versatile, 

 bilobular, and lobes furrowed ; jjoUen orange. Stigmata 3, convolute, 

 green, scarcely projecting beyond the stamens. Style filiform. Germen 



