130 A SYNOPSIS OJb' THE GENUS .EcHxAlEA. 



ovules usually numerous, rarely only three or four, inserted at the 

 middle or near the summit of the placentas, mucronate and shortly 

 funiculate ; style filiform ; stigmas cuneate at the tip and spirally 

 twisted. , Fruit coriaceous or subhaccate, with few or many mmute 

 exaj)pendiculate seeds. 



Epii)hytic herbs, with a sessile utricular rosette of numerous 

 chartaceous or horny lorate or lanceolate leaves, which are nearly 

 always serrated at the margin. Scape central, except in .E.pani- 

 culata, its leaves except in § OrUjiesia bract-like and scariose, the 

 upper ones usually bright red and ornamental. Inflorescence very 

 various, multifarious or distichous, spicate or sj)icato-, racemoso- 

 or cymoso-paniculate, each flower subtended by one or rarely two 

 small navicular coriaceous bracts with a pungent cusp. Eachises 

 of the inflorescence not bright-coloured as in Lamprococcus. 

 Flowers small as compared with those of its neighbour Billhergia, 

 red-purple, blue, yellow, greenish, or white. Fruit small, often 

 bright-coloured and ornamental. Distinguished from every other 

 genus of Ananasscd, except BiUhenjia, by its free petals, conspi- 

 cuously spirally-twisted stigmas and sessile leaves ; fi'om Billhergia 

 by its smaller flowers, less exserted from the calyx and not 

 opening out so widely when expanded, by its shorter filaments, 

 much smaller anthers, and by its cuspidate sepals and copious 

 coriaceous conspicuous navicular flower-bracts with a pungent 

 mucro. 



To ^Echmea, as thus understood, the following genera, which 

 have been proposed, belong, arranging them in order of date, viz. : 



Huhenbergia, Schultes fil., Syst. Veg. vii., No. 1402. 



Pothuava, Pironneava, and Chevalliera, Gaudich., Atl. Bonite 

 (figures only, without descriptions). 



Hoplophgtiim, Beer, Brom., 129. 



Echmostachys, A. Brong. ; Planch. Hort. Donat., 25. 



Ortgiesia, Kegel, Gartenfl. xvi. 193, t. 547. 



Ccmistrum, E. Morren in Belg. Hort., 1873, t. 15. 



Key to the Sections and Species. 



Section [. Amphilepis. Inflorescence distichous. Each flower 

 clasped by a couple of bracts, the inner one almost entirely adnate 

 to the rachis. 



1. hracteata. 2. uiartinicensis. 3. dichlcuiujdea. 



Section II. Platy.echmea. Inflorescence distichous. Each 

 flower subtended on the outside by a navicular bract. = Disqiiamia, 

 Lemaire. 



Panicle small, dense, with all the branches simply spicate. 

 4. (xlaziovii. 5. distichantha. 6. excavata. 



7. vriesioides. 8. tllhoidsuddcs. 



Panicle larger, laxer, wdth the lower branches compound. 

 9. jHihiscois. 10. dactijlina. 



