J 



226 A SYNOPSIS OF THE GENUS .ECHMEA. 



contorti, autico iiitiis setis reflexis barbato, et antherarum loculi ut 

 in E china cantlw basi mucrouati-aristati." 



Perhaps the most strikmg point about Mellera is the curious 

 mid-lobe of the lower lip with its recurved setae. The presence of 

 these as well as the larger size of the mid-lobe plainly show a well- 

 developed differentiation of the limb into two lips, a character 

 which, differhig as it does from the occasional slight tendencies 

 to the bilabiate condition seen in Calophanes, Buellia, &c., indicates 

 that Mellera has closer affinity with the tribe Hijf/wjjhileeE than 

 with Eiiraellie(B. From Brillantama it differs in the absence of 

 stammodes, fewer ovules, shape of the corolla, as well as in the 

 totally-different inflorescence ; from Xomaphila, its inflorescence, 

 spurred antlers, &c., afford good characters for separation ; while 

 Hi/f/rophila, with its scattered axillary fascicles of flowers, and its 

 usually muticous but at most merely mucronate anthers, &c., 

 stands towards it m but distant relationship. When I first 

 examined the plant some years ago I thought that it might 

 possibly be placed with Calophanes, but in addition to the bilabiate 

 corolla, the 8-celled ovary and habit render the affinity less close 

 than I before suspected to be the case. 



Description or Tab. 203. — Mellera lohulata, S. Moore (Nat. size). — 

 a, corolla opened; b, calyx with bracteoles ; c, an anther opened out, showing 

 the cells unequal at the base; d, ovary style and stigma; e, ovary opened 

 (all more or less magnified). 



A SYNOPSIS OF THE GENUS .ECHMEA, E. & P. 

 By J. G. Baker, F.K.S. 



(Concluded from p. 1G8). 



31. M. odora, Daher .—Billherriia odura , Miquel in Linn^ea, xviii. 

 377. — Holienhenjia odora, Baker in Eef. Bot., sub. t. 284. — Leaves 

 lorate, moderately horny in texture, obtuse with a prominent cusp, 

 reaching a length of two to three feet and a breadth of one inch 

 and a half to three inches at the middle, closely minutely serrated 

 up to the top. Scape a foot long, sheathed by many large 

 lanceolate adpressed bract-leaves. Panicle lax, rhomboid, bipinnate, 

 a foot or more long, with few or many distant ascending or 

 spreading spicate branches, the lowest of which are nearly a foot 

 long and subtended by lanceolate bracts two to three inches long. 

 Flower-bracts minute, deltoid, with a pungent cusp as long as the 

 lamina. Calyx including ovary three-eighths of an inch long ; 

 sepals deltoid, half as long as the ovary, with a large erecto-patent 

 pungent cusp. Petals yellowish, one quarter of an inch longer 

 than the sepals. — Surinam, Eocke, 809 ! Cayenne, Poiteau ! 

 Trinidad, Prestoe ! Martinique, Hahn, 577! St. Lucia, Herh. Mas. 

 P>rit. I — We have this in cultivation at Kew, but it has not yet been 

 figured. 



