l8 SMITHSONIAN MISCELLANEOUS COLLECTIONS VOL. I26 



Aechmea podantha L. B. Smith, sp. nov. Figure 95 



A Ae. fulgente Brongn., cui affinis, floribus pedicellatis, ovario 

 verrucoso differt. 



Climbing ( ! Foster) ; flowering shoot 45 cm. long; leaves to 42 cm. 

 long, the sheaths elliptic to suborbicular, 12 cm. long, subdensely and 

 minutely brown-lepidote, the blades ligulate, subacute and apiculate, 

 slightly narrowed toward the base, 3 cm. wide, subdensely serrulate 

 with antrorse teeth i mm. long, sparsely and obscurely pale-lepidote, 

 lustrous ; scape curved, 3 mm. in diameter, glabrous ; scape-bracts 

 erect, densely imbricate, elliptic, acute, red, membranaceous, obscurely 

 lepidote, the lower ones serrulate; inflorescence laxly bipinnate, py- 

 ramidal, 12 cm. long, 7 cm. in diameter, glabrous; primary bracts tri- 

 angular, the largest only 5 mm, long; branches spreading and lax 

 with a few distichous flowers ; rhachis slender, geniculate ; floral bracts 

 minute, suborbicular ; flowers suberect, on pedicels i mm. long ; sepals 

 4 mm. long, connate for 1.5 mm., verrucose, the free lobes strongly 

 asymmetric, retuse ; petals imperfectly known, their blades 4 mm. 

 long; ovary globose, red, verrucose, epigynous tube very short, 

 placentae apical, ovules caudate. 



Type in the Gray Herbarium, collected at Santa Teresa, State of Espirito 

 Santo, Brazil, Aug. 7, 1940, by M. B. & R. Foster (No. 842). 



Aechmea ramosa Mart. var. festiva L. B. Smith, var. nov. 



Differt sepalis rubris, ovariis albis. 



Differs from the typical variety by its red sepals and white ovaries. 



Type in the Gray Herbarium, collected at Linhares, Alunicipio Collatina, 

 State of Espirito Santo, Brazil, altitude 20 to 40 meters, Aug. 2, 1940, by 

 M. B. & R. Foster (No. 770). 



Aechmea stelligera L. B. Smith, sp. nov. Figure 98 



A Ae. tomentosa Mez, cui affinis, inflorescentia laxa, bracteis 

 primariis angustis, axibus gracilibus differt. 



Epiphytic, plant incompletely known but undoubtedly over a meter 

 high; leaves unknown; scape straight, slender; scape-bracts erect, 

 densely imbricate, lanceolate, acute, entire, over 2 dm. long, charta- 

 ceous, rose (! Vasconcellos), brown-lepidote; inflorescence laxly 

 subpyramidal, tripinnate, 4 dm. long, covered with fine brown stellate 

 trichomes ; primary bracts linear-lanceolate, the upper ones shorter 

 than their axillary branches ; spikes laxly 7-8-flowered ; rhachis genic- 

 ulate, slender ; floral bracts acicular from a broadly triangular base, 

 2 mm. long; flowers more than 2-ranked, sessile, suberect; sepals 



