ON TWO NEW BROIIELIADS EROJI RIO JANEIRO. 49 



enough, but it possesses no character of specific value ; and the 

 course adopted in the second edition of the < Synopsis,' of placing 

 it as a variety under salebrosum, is justified by the slenderness of 

 the distinctive features, which are chiefly those of habit. How it 

 shoidd come to be thought likely that a bryologist of Dr. Spruce's 

 attainments should confuse either form with a moss so different in 

 aspect and characters as Gamptothecium aureum one is puzzled to 

 guess, this last much rather resembling G. lutescens, or even Homa- 

 lothecium ; nor do I see why anyone need feel it difficult to under- 

 stand B. salebrosum aright who can refer to • Bryologia Europtea,' 

 or to 'Bryol. Britannica ' and the ' Synopsis' of Schimper. 



ON TWO NEW BROMELIADS FKOM KIO JANEIRO. 



By J. G. Baker, F.R.S. 



Following close upon Mr. L. C. Meyer's Bromeliads from 

 Triuidad, an interesting packet of well-dried specimens has come 

 from Dr. Glaziou, collected in the neighbourhood of Rio Janeiro. 

 Amongst other things it contains specimens of the very distinct 

 Billben/ia nutans, H. Wendl., figured lately in the 'Botanical 

 Magazine' (tab. 6423), of which the native locality was not 

 previously known, and further examples of JEchmea fasciata, 

 Glaziovii, ftoribunda, and suaveolens, Tillamhia Gardncri, stricta, 

 regina, and a second large Yriesia, which is either T. procera, Marl., 

 or a close ally. My main object in this present note is to name 

 and describe two very distinct novelties included in the series ; 

 one a distichous JEchmea, and the other a NiduldrUtm of much 

 larger size than any species already known, which will be a great 

 acquisition to our stock of cultivated BromeHads when Dr. Glaziou 

 is able to procure and send living specimens. 



-fEciiMEA (Platy/echmea) multiceps, Baker, n. sp. — Leaves with 

 a lorate lamina 3-4 feet long, 2|-3 ins. broad at the middle, not 

 ngid in texture, thinly lepidote on the back, deltoid-cuspidate at 

 the tip, the edge-prickles brown-black, close and minute through- 

 out. Inflorescence a bipinnate panicle, with a stout loosely 

 woolly flexuose rachis, the lower branches about half a foot long, 

 spreading horizontally, subtended by short scariose adpressed 

 lanceolate bract-leaves, the flowers of each branch clustered into 

 ten or a dozen globose distichous sessile heads £-f in. broad, 

 containing each six or eight flowers, the upper heads of the branch 

 aggregated, the lower separated. Flower-bracts cordate-orbicular, 

 coriaceous, about £ in. long and broad, minutely cuspidate, 

 striated vertically, furnished with a little loose deciduous tomentum. 

 ^alyx W1 tb vary oyoid, a i n . i ong . sepals minute, deltoid- 

 cuspidate. Petals with an oblong lamina protruded about T \ in., 

 spirally twisted after flowering.— Rio Janeiro, Glaziou, 11,681 !— 

 remarkable for its small Lamprococcus-like flowers, combined 

 with an m florescence rather like that of M. yluunrata, but the 

 leads distichous, not multifarious. 



H 



