RHODOSTACHYS. 27 



acantha and Commeliniana Beer. — Acaulescent. Leaves 100 or 

 more in a rosette 4-5 ft. diam., ensiform, 4-5 ft. long, 1^2 in. 

 broad at the mididle, narrowed gradually to the point, rigid but 

 recurving from loW down, green on the face, thinly white-lepidote 

 and lineate on the back, armed with copious, middle-sized hooked 

 pungent yellowish prickles. Peduncle about a foot long ; leaves 

 crowded, arcuate, 1-1-| ft. long, often bright red. Panicle 1-2 ft. 

 long, 4-6 in. diam., stiffly erect, with a stout densely pubescent 

 axis ; branch-bracts oblong, pale, scariose, lower with spine-edged 

 cusps ; lower branches flexuose, 2-3 in. long, bearing 6-8 erecto- 

 patent usually sessile flowers ; flower-bracts minute, scariose. 

 Ovary densely pubescent, f in. long; sepals oblong, \ in. long. 

 Petals red-violet, exserted ^ in. beyond the sepals. Berry yellow, 

 ovoid, 1^-2 in. long, 1 in. diam. 



Hab. South and Central Brazil, Burchell 1520 ! Gandichaud 129 1 Tweedie 

 793 ! Glaziou 12234. Paraguay, Balansa 608 1 Now the commonest species in 

 cultivation. Lindley's plant was described from the collection of Mr. A. B. 

 Lambert at Boyton. Bertoloni's was brought from Brazil to Bologna by Eaddi. 



6. B. CHRYSANTHA Jacq. Hort. Schoenb. i. t. 55. Jgallostachi/s 

 chnjmntha Beer. — Acaulescent. Leaves ensiform, rigid, 2-3 ft. 

 long, 1| in. broad, low down, tapering gradually to the tip, bright 

 green on the face, thinly lepidote and striated on the back, armed 

 with large pungent hooked spines. Peduncle a foot long. Panicle 

 comparatively lax, 1-1^ ft. long ; rachis and branches pubescent ; 

 lower very flexuose, about 3 in. long, bearing about 6 sessile flowers, 

 each subtended by a scariose ovate bract \ in. long. Ovary cylin- 

 drical-trigonous, slightly pubescent, f in. long ; sepals Ungulate, 

 subcoriaceous, nearly naked, |^-f in. long. Petals bright yellow, 

 ^ in. longer than the sepals. Berry turbinate, yellow, very sweet. 



Hab. Venezuela, Fendler 2574 1 Described and figured by Jacquin from 

 the Schonbrun Garden in 1797. 



14. Rhodostachys nUL 

 {FiUcJda Kegel). 



Sejmls linear-oblong, not mucronate, free down to the cyathi- 

 form summit of the ovary. Petals oblong- unguiculate, little longer 

 than the calyx, sometimes minutely scaled at the base, spreading 

 only at the tip. Staiveiis as long as or a little longer than the 

 petals, epigynous ; filaments filiform ; anthers dorsifixed, linear- 

 oblong, versatile. Ovary inferior, oblong, 3-celled ; ovules many in 

 a cell ; style long, filiform ; stigmas short, scarcely twisted. Fruit 

 ovoid- triquetrous, baccate. — Lcaces many in a dense rosette, ensi- 

 form, firm in texture, armed on the margin with pungent spines. 

 Injiorescence a dense sessile or shortly-peduncled central capitulum. 

 Flowers red or violet. All the species are subtemperate, with 

 leaves like those of Hechtia and Di/ckia. 



1. R. BicoLOR Benth. Gen. Plant, iii. 662. Bromelia hicolor 

 Ruiz et Pav. Fl. Peruv. iii. 33; C. Gay, Fl. Chil. iii, 9, Atl. t. 68; 

 E. Morren in Belg. Hort, 1873, t. 14.— Leaves 50-100 in a dense 



