197 



Leaves veiy flexible, recurved^ 

 spreading or upper part 

 sometimes drooping, varie- 

 gated with narrow dark 

 green and broader pale or 

 whitish-green transverse zig- 

 zag bars on both sides, not 

 glaucous 



Leaves rigidly coriaceous, sub- 

 erect or slightly recurving, 

 variegated with broad dark 

 green and narrower paler 

 green transverse ba 



/' 



or less glaucous 42, chinensis. 



Leaves 



(rarely 4) to a growth, the 

 larger 3-5 ft. long: — 



Leaves rigid, a-4 lin. thick at 

 the middle, distinctly varie- 

 gated, more or less glaucous ; 

 sheaths of flower-stem 2-5^ 

 in. long, all green and 

 firm, or the upper becoming 

 submembranous ' 50. Eaffillii and 



var. 



Leaves more or less flexible or 

 firmly coriaceous, 1^-2 lin. 

 thick at the middle, not 

 glaucous; sheaths of flower- 

 stem ^-4 in. long, whitish or 

 whitish-brown, thin, sub- 

 membranous : 



Leaves mostly 2-^-5 ft. long, 

 and 2-4 in. broad, with 

 petioles 4-24 in. long ... 44. metallica 



and var. 

 Leaves mostly 2-3 ft. long and 



in. broad, convolute 



at the base without a very 



evident petiole 45. liheriai. 



1. S. bagamoyensis, N. E. Brown, in Kew Bull. 1913, p. 306. 



Stem erect, height unknown, but evidently frutescent, the speci- 

 men seen consisting of a terminal piece 2^ in. long and 5 lin. 

 thick, bearing 8 leaves and a terminal panicle. Leaves from all 

 round the stem, closely placed, with their sheaths embracing one 

 another at the base, recurved or recurved-spreading from the base, 

 emooth, 7-15 in. long, | in. or less broad, \ in. thick at the 

 middle, rigid when dry, linear-lanceolate or linear, tapering to a 

 very acute hard spine-like brown point \ in. or more long, 

 concave-channelled down the face, with a very narrow red-brown 

 line edged with a white membrane along the margins. Panicle 

 terminal, 16 in. long, wuth a spread of about 10 in,, laxly 

 branched from 1|^ in, above the base, without sheaths or barren 

 bracts below the lowest branch ; branches simple, the lower 6-8 in. 

 long and 1-1^ in. apart, the upper 2\-A in. long, with a tendency 

 to approximate in pairs |-1 in. apart. Bracts under the branches 

 lanceolate, tapering to a very acute point, spreading, the lower 



