NO. I BROMELIACEAE OF BRAZIL — SMITH lOI 



4. Primary bracts shorter than the long, usually bracteate, sterile bases of 



the branches; plants 5-20 dm. high. 

 7. Floral bracts about equaling the intemodes or slightly more ; branches 

 usually spreading. 

 8. Leaves acuminate; stamens exserted 15. V. neoglutinosa 



8. Leaves broadly acute or rounded and apiculate; stamens included. 



22. V. procera 

 7. Floral bracts much exceeding the intemodes; branches erect or 

 ascending. 



9. Floral bracts sharply carinate ; branches subequal. . . 28. V. stricta 

 9. Floral bracts ecarinate; the terminal branch much larger and with 



a longer sterile base than the lateral ones 29. V. minarum 



SUBKEY c 



I. Floral bracts black from the first, fleshy; branches of the inflorescence with 

 elongate sterile bases bearing many remote bracts. (V. funebris, no. i, is 

 accounted for here because its flowers are known in a very young stage 

 only and might become secund at maturity). 

 I. Floral bracts pale or at most dark castaneous, never black or fleshy. 

 2. Scape-bracts (or at least the upper ones) shorter than the intemodes. 

 3. Sterile base of the branch much longer than the fertile part; rhachis 

 less than 2 mm. thick; inflorescence very lax; floral bracts ovate, 

 half as long as the sepals, membranaceous; sepals 15 mm. long, nar- 

 row, carinate 30. V. sparsiflora 



3. Sterile base of the branch relatively short; rhachis stout; inflorescence 

 dense ; floral bracts very broad ; sepals ecarinate. 

 4. Leaf-sheaths dark castaneous; scape-bracts half as long as the inter- 

 nodes ; sepals 24 mm. long 31. V. crassa 



4. Leaf -sheaths pale; scape-bracts only a little shorter than the inter- 

 nodes ; sepals 22 mm. long 32. V. densiflora 



2. Scape-bracts equaling or exceeding all of the intemodes. 



5. Branches laxly flowered; floral bracts distinctly less than twice as long 



as the intemodes. 

 6. Branches of the inflorescence very slender, at most barely exceeding 

 2 mm. in diameter ; floral bracts membranaceous. 

 7. Floral bracts much shorter than the sepals; inflorescence much 

 branched. 

 8. Branches to 50 cm. long, many-flowered; floral bracts ovate, 

 acute; sepals acute, 25 mm. long. (Fig. 36.) 



33. V. philippocoburgii 

 8. Branches 8-12 cm. long, few-flowered ; floral bracts ovate to semi- 

 orbicular, obtuse; sepals obtuse, 13 mm. long. 



9. V. leptantha 

 7. Floral bracts about equaling the 23 mm. long sepals, broadly elliptic, 



acute; inflorescence few-branched 34. V. delicatula 



6. Branches of the inflorescence stout, much more than 2 mm. in di- 

 ameter; floral bracts coriaceous, much exceeded by the sepals. 

 9. Sepals acute. 



