l6 SMITHSONIAN MISCELLANEOUS COLLECTIONS VOL. 126 



divergent, imbricate and massed below the inflorescence, involute, 

 glabrous ; inflorescence simple, strobilate, cylindric, 4 cm. long, 2 cm. 

 in diameter, white-flocculose ; floral bracts suborbicular, retuse and 

 then apiculate, 10 mm. long, thick and bicarinate with thin apex and 

 margins, dark brown ; sepals 8 mm. long, connate for 3.5 mm., the 

 free lobes asymmetric, subquadrate, ecarinate, unarmed; petals 17 mm. 

 long, bearing fimbriate scales near the middle of the claw, blades 

 elliptic ; stamens included ; epigynous tube i mm. long, placentae 

 apical ; ovules caudate. 



Type in the Gray Herbarium, collected on the Pico de Piedade near Belo 

 Horizonte, State of Minas Gerais, altitude 1,300 meters, July 10, 1940, by M. B. 

 & R. Foster (No. 561). 



Aechmea mitis (Mart, ex Schult.) L. B. Smith, comb. nov. 



Billberyia mitis Mart, ex Schult. in R. & S. Syst. 7, pt. 2 : 1267. 1830. 



Aechmea mutica L. B. Smith, sp. nov. Figure 96 



A Ae. macrochlamyde L. B. Smith, cui habitu persimilis, inflores- 

 centia bipinnata, sepalis subduplo minoribus inermibus differt. 



Flowering plant 60-65 cm. high; leaves 5-6 dm. long, sheaths 

 elliptic, 16-19 cm. long, much wider than the blades, subdensely and 

 minutely brown-lepidote, blades linear, rounded to a stout pungent 

 terminal cusp, not at all narrowed at base, 3 cm. wide, sparsely and 

 very inconspicuously pale-lepidote, laxly serrate with spreading brown 

 teeth 2 mm. long; scape slightly curved, 5 mm, in diameter, white- 

 lanate, becoming glabrous ; scape-bracts lance-oblong, acute, pungent, 

 subcoriaceous, sparsely pale-lepidote, the lower exceeding the inter- 

 nodes, serrulate near their apices, pale green, the upper densely 

 imbricate and massed beneath the inflorescence, roseate ; inflorescence 

 densely bipinnate, cylindric, 14-17 cm. long, 6 cm. in diameter, white- 

 lanate especially on the axis ; primary bracts spreading, thin, roseate, 

 the lower ones linear and exceeding the spikes, the upper triangular 

 and much shorter ; spikes sessile, cylindric, densely 3-4-flowered ; 

 rhachis not excavated ; floral bracts broadly ovate, acuminate, 20 mm. 

 long including the slender terminal mucro, exceeding and concealing 

 the sepals, thin, prominently nerved, roseate ; flowers apparently 

 distichous, sessile, erect ; sepals free, asymmetric, elliptic, obtuse, 

 9 mm. long, unarmed; petals 17 mm. long, blue, bearing 2 bidentate 

 scales at base; epigynous tube 2 mm. long, placentae apical, ovules 

 apiculate. 



