30 SMITHSONIAN MISCELLANEOUS COLLECTIONS VOL. I26 



Neoregelia melanodonta L. B. Smith, sp. nov. Figure 66 



A A^. zonata L. B. Smith, cui affinis, stolonibus robustis, foliorum 

 laminis brevibus latisque regulariter minuteque albido zonatis, brac- 

 teis florigeris amplis cuspidatis differt, 



Caudex 35 mm. in diameter ( ! Foster) ; leaves many, 15-20 cm. 

 long, pale-lepidote on both sides, the sheaths broadly elliptic, about as 

 long as the blades and slightly darker, blades broadly ligulate, rounded 

 and apiculate becoming retuse by the recession of the apex, 5 cm. 

 wide, sparingly dark-spotted, laxly serrate with black teeth 1.5 mm. 

 long, very regularly and finely marked beneath with white cross-lines ; 

 scape very short; inflorescence few-flowered, fusiform, i cm. in di- 

 ameter ; outer bracts ovate, cuspidate-acute, serrulate, densely lepidote ; 

 floral bracts like the outer bracts but narrower, nearly equaling the 

 sepals; pedicels slender, 20 mm. long; sepals definitely asymmetric, 

 elliptic with an involute-subulate apex, 23 mm. long, connate for 2 

 mm. ; petals light blue ( ! Foster) ; ovary ellipsoid, 14 mm. long. 



Type in the U. S. National Herbarium, No. 2057905, collected at Cuibiqa, 

 State of Espirito Santo, Brazil, Aug. 14, 1940 (bloomed in cultivation October 

 1952), by M. B. & R. Foster (No. 897). 



Neoregelia myrmecophila (Ule) L. B. Smith, comb. nov. 



Nidularium myrmecophilmn Ule, Verb. Bot. Ver. Brand. 48 : 132. 1907. 



Neoregelia oligantha L. B. Smith, sp. nov. Figure 62 



A A'', cruenta (R. Graham) L. B. Smith, cui afiinis, omnibus parti- 

 bus minoribus, inflorescentia pauciflora, sepalis paulo asymmetricis 

 differt. 



Propagating by short ascending stolons; leaves few, 26 cm. long, 

 covered on both sides with pale coarse appressed scales but becoming 

 glabrous above in extreme age, sheaths broadly elliptic, 10 cm. long, 

 blades ligulate, rounded and apiculate, 23 mm. wide, laxly serrulate 

 with strongly uncinate teeth about i mm. long ; scape very short ; in- 

 florescence few-flowered, about 2 cm. in diameter; bracts thin, old 

 and poorly preserved in the only specimen seen ; pedicels slender, 12 

 mm. long ; sepals slightly asymmetric, lanceolate, acute, 23 mm. long, 

 connate for 1.5 mm. ; ovary ellipsoid, 8 mm. long. 



Type in the Gray Herbarium, collected in the Parque Nacional, Ipatinga on 

 the Rio Doce, Municipio of Antonio Dias, State of Minas Gerais, Brazil, 

 July 26, 1940, by M. B. & R. Foster (No. 742). 



