Addisonia 



(Plate 228) 



BILLBERGIA SAUNDERSII 



Saunders' Billbergia 



Native of Brazil 

 Family Bromeuaceae Pineapple Family 



Billbergia Saundersii W. Bull, Gard. Chron. II. 1 : 78. 1874. 



The billbergias, including about forty tropical American epi- 

 phytes, are a group of the showiest plants of the bromeliad family, 

 of which the most familiar example is the pineapple. They have 

 broad stiff leaves, often spotted or variegated, bright red or pink 

 bracts, and flowers of attractive shades of blue and green. B. 

 Saundersii is one of a group of Brazilian species with racemes of 

 drooping flowers. It was first brought to the attention of horti- 

 culturists in 1871, when plants were exhibited before the Royal 

 Horticultural Society of England by Mr. W. Wilson Saunders, 

 for whom the species was named. Many beautiful billbergias were 

 grown in greenhouses at that time. The plant from which plate 

 228 was made was grown in the bromeliad collection at the New 

 York Botanical Garden, in which Billbergia Saundersii has been rep- 

 resented since 1902, when plants were brought here from Europe. 



Billbergias are grown in warm houses in baskets or pans of fern 

 root or spaghnum, imitating their natural epiphytic growth. They 

 may also be grown in ordinary soil. They are propagated by 

 means of suckers from the old plants. 



Saunders' billbergia is an epiphytic herb, with short stems cov- 

 ered with alternate closely set leaves forming a rosette, their bases 

 curved and cupped. These leaves are stiff, leathery, a foot or 

 more long with spiny margins, curled ends, green with whitish spots 

 on the upper side and reddish on the lower side. The flowers are 

 in loose drooping racemes up to one foot long, and are subtended 

 by bright red or carmine leaf-like bracts which are about one inch 

 wide and three inches long. Each flower is nearly three inches 

 long; the calyx with a short green tube and three oblong, acute, 

 white-scurfy lobes, the corolla with three strap-shaped green petals, 

 two inches long, twisted together at their ends, enclosing a long 

 slender style and stamens. 



Kenneth R. Boynton. 



Explanation op Plate. Fig. 1. — Inflorescence. Fig. 2. — Upper part of 

 leaf. Fig. 3. — Flower, with calyx and corolla removed. Fig. 4. — Odd petal, 

 with stamen. Fig. 5. — Lateral petal, with stamen. 



