BESCHORNERIA. 161 



whitish, sessile in about 3 distant pairs; outer bracts small, ovate. 

 Perianth-tube 1-1:1- ii^« long ; segments oblong, ^ in. long. Anthers 

 a little protruded from the tube. 



Hab. Mexico ; San Luis Potosi, alt. 6000—8000 ft., Parnj d' Palmer 867 ! 



3. B. siNGULiFLOKA S. Wats. in Proc. Amer. Acad. xxii. 479. — 

 Tuber 1^ in. diam. Basal leaves numerous, linear, a foot or less 

 long, -1-1 in. broad, undulate on the edges. Peduncle including the 

 inflorescence 3 ft. long. Flowers usually or always solitary ; pedi- 

 cels very short ; outer bracts deltoid. Flowers greenish white ; 

 tube with the ovary 1^ in. long, tinged with purple; segments 

 oblong, \-\ in. long. Anthers reaching nearly to the tip of the 

 segments. Capsule oblong, under an inch long. 



Hab. Mexico ; mountains near Chihuahua, Pringle. Discovered in 1886. 



4. B. BuLLiANA Baker in Gard. Chron. 1884, ii. 328. — Tuber 

 ovoid, above 1 in. diam., the outer tunics slit into copious fibres 

 at the top. Basal leaves lanceolate, acuminate, bright green, | ft. 

 long, 1-li in. broad. Peduncle 2-3 ft. long, flexuose, bearing only 

 a single much -reduced leaf. Eaceme of 5-6 pairs of whitish nearly 

 sessile flowers; bracts minute, ovate. Perianth 1:^ in. long; tube 

 •§• in. diam. at the top ; segments ovate, ^ in. long and broad. 

 Stamens reaching to the tip of the segments. 



Hab. Mexico. Described from a plant flowered by Mr. Wm. Bull in 1884. 



58. Beschorneria Kunth. 



Perianth with a very short funnel-shaped tube and subequal 

 ascending lanceolate segments. Stamens inserted at the base of the 

 segments and about equalling them ; filaments filiform ; anthers 

 linear-oblong, versatile. Ovary clavate, 3-celled ; ovules many, 

 superposed ; style thickened at the base ; stigma capitate. Capsule 

 subgiobose, loculicidally 3-valved. Seeds crowded, flattened, brownish 

 black. — Rootstock short, tuberous. Basal leaves rosulate, ascending, 

 lanceolate, glaucous, scabrous on the margin ; stem-leaves bract- 

 like. Flowers clustered, greenish or reddish, arranged in simple or 

 panicled racemes ; pedicels articulated at the apex ; bracts ovate, 

 scariose. The species are all very closely allied to one another. 



1. B. TUBiFLORA Kuuth, Enuni. v. 844; Hook, in Bot. Mag. 

 t. 4642; Kegel, Gartenfl. t. 851. — Leaves a dozen or more in a 

 rosette, about a foot long, ^ in. broad in the wild, an inch broad in 

 the cultivated plant, very scabrous on both surfaces. Peduncle 

 2-3 ft. long including the simple raceme ; bract-leaves about a 

 dozen, lanceolate ; flowers 2-3 in a cluster, with unequal pedicels 

 and a cluster of unequal ovate scariose bracts. "Whole flower 1^ in. 

 long ; ovary f in. long ; segments reddish green, an inch long, 

 ^ in. broad below the tip. Stamens a little shorter than the 

 segments. 



Hab. Mountains of Central Mexico, ascending to 6000 — 8000 ft. Intro- 

 duced into cultivation by Ehrenberg in 1845, and by Eoezl in February, 1857. 

 See Belg. Hort. 1883, p. 133. I cannot separate specifically B. Cohniana 

 Jacobi inedit, which flowered at Kew, April, 1877. 



