100 SMITHSONIAN MISCELLANEOUS COLLECTIONS VOL. 126 



21. Leaf-blades green, soon glabrous. 

 22. Floral bracts sharply carinate for most of their length, 

 about 4 times as long as the internodes. 



20. V. monacorura 

 22. Floral bracts slightly if at all carinate, mostly much less 



than 4 times as long as the internodes. 

 23. Primary bracts exceeding the short bracteate or naked 

 sterile bases of the branches. (Fig. 33.) 



21. V. friburgensis 

 23. Primary bracts shorter than the long bracteate sterile 



bases of the branches. (Fig. 34.) . . . 22. V. procera 

 13. Branches of the inflorescence stout; floral bracts only about half as 

 long as the sepals ; leaves acute to acuminate. 

 24. Floral bracts very broadly acute to obtuse or truncate, usually 

 ecarinate. 

 25. Rhachis merely flexuous; flowers suberect. (Fig. 35.) 



"^Z- V. gigantea 

 25. Rhachis geniculate; flowers spreading. 

 26. Inflorescence narrow, many-branched; floral bracts mostly 



straight along the apical half 96. V. geniculata 



26. Inflorescence ample with few and elongate branches ; floral 



bracts gibbous near the middle 97. V. extensa 



24. Floral bracts acute, carinate. 

 27. Rhachis scarcely if at all geniculate; floral bracts not more than 



twice as long as the internodes at anthesis 98. V. regina 



2"^. Rhachis strongly geniculate; floral bracts more than twice as 

 long as the internodes 99. V. brasiliana 



SUBKEY B 



I. Inflorescence subcorymbose, only 45 mm. long, its primary bracts involucrate 

 below it; sepals 22 mm. long, much exceeding the floral bracts. 



24. V. paradoxa 

 I. Inflorescence elongate, much exceeding its primary bracts. 

 2. Scape decurved; inflorescence pendulous; floral bracts suborbicular to 

 broadly ovate, much shorter than the sepals, membranaceous. 

 3. Axis of the inflorescence geniculate ; leaves broadly rounded. 



10. V. billbergioides 



3. Axis of the inflorescence nearly straight ; leaves subobtuse. 



25. V. languida 

 2. Scape straight or ascending; inflorescence erect. 



4. Primary bracts much exceeding the short naked sterile bases of the 



branches; plants 3-8.5 dm. high. 

 5. Floral bracts about equaling the sepals, 28 mm. long, 2 to 3 times as 

 long as the internodes ; branches spreading lax. . . 26. V. triligulata 

 5. Floral bracts much shorter than the sepals, 10-17 mm. long. 

 6. Leaf -blades si)otted ; bracts and sepals castaneous ; inflorescence 



dense, its branches erect 27. V. maculosa 



6. Leaf -blades concolorous, green; bracts and sepals yellow; inflores- 

 cence lax, its branches spreading. (Fig. 31.) 



II. V. rodigasiana 



