22 SMITHSONIAN MISCELLANEOUS COLLECTIONS VOL. 1 26 



Billbergia minarum L. B. Smith, sp. nov. Figure 120 



A B. lietzei E. Morr. et B. leptopoda L. B. Smith, quibus affinis, 

 bracteis florigeris superioribus minutis differt. 



Flowering plants 3-10 dm. high ( ! Foster) ; leaves in a tubular 

 rosette, to 54 cm. long, maroon-green mottled with cream-white spots, 

 covered with coarse white appressed scales, becoming glabrous above, 

 the sheath indistinct, somewhat darker than the blade, the blade nar- 

 rowly triangular, acuminate, about 2 cm. wide at base, very laxly 

 serrulate ; scape curved, 2 mm. in diameter, nearly glabrous ; scape- 

 bracts lanceolate with an acuminate involute densely white-lepidote 

 apex, to 10 cm. long, thin, roseate, the upper ones much exceeding 

 the internodes ; inflorescence pendent, pseudosimple with very short 

 I -flowered branches, lax with 9 flowers in 2 rows; axis geniculate, 

 very slender, glabrous ; lowest floral bract like the scape-bracts but 

 smaller, the upper ones minute, shorter than the pedicels ; flowers 

 spreading to reflexed, glabrous ; pedicels slender, to 3 mm. long ; sepals 

 oblong, broadly acute, to 22 mm. long, the apical third dark blue and 

 the remainder green ; petals linear, obtuse, 5 cm. long, exceeding the 

 stamens, green except for the dark blue apex, bearing 2 scales at the 

 base ; pollen grains ellipsoid, sculptured, bearing a longitudinal fold 

 when dry ; ovary obconic, to 10 mm. long, epigynous tube short, 

 placentae linear, ovules apiculate. 



Type in the Gray Herbarium, collected on rocks in dry woods, Gobernador 

 Valadores near the Rio Doce, State of Minas Gerais, Brazil, altitude 600 meters, 

 July 28, 1940, by M. B. & R. Foster (No. 766). 



Billbergia tweedieana Baker var. latisepala L. B. Smith, var. nov. 



Differt sepalis brevibus subduplo longioribus ac latis. 

 Differs from the typical variety in having sepals barely 13 mm. 

 long, about twice as long as wide. 



Type in the Gray Herbarium, collected at Cantagallo, State of Rio de Janeiro, 

 Brazil, by A. Glaziou (No. 15476). Duplicate in the Museum National d'Histoire 

 Naturelle, Paris. 



Billbergia tweedieana Baker var. minor L. B. Smith, var. nov. 



Differt planta minore, sepalis majoribus, late acutis. 

 Differs from the typical variety in its much smaller stature and 

 broadly acute sepals 24 mm. long. 



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

 Santo, Brazil, altitude 765 meters, July 27, 1939, by M. B. & R. Foster (No. 277). 

 Duplicate in the Museu Nacional, Rio de Janeiro. 



