DISTIACANTHUS. 13 



apart at the centre of the blade. Flowers in dense oblong lateral 

 clusters 3-4 hi. long, 2 in. diam., from the axils of some of the 

 outer leaves of the rosette, each surrounded by many rigid ovate 

 acuminate closely- serrated brown reduced leaves ; flower- bracts 

 scariose, linear, or lanceolate. Ovary clavate-triquetrous, an inch 

 long; sepals lanceolate, 1^ in. long. Corolla red, l|-2 in. long; 

 segments oblong, |~f in. long. Anthers ^ in. long. 



Hab. Chili. Common about Concepcion and Valdivia, extending south 

 to latitude 41°, Pavon 1 PMlippi 165 ! Native name " Chupon." I cannot 

 distinguish Bromelia crassa Steud. in Lechler, Exsic. No. 677. The fruit is 

 eaten for the sake of its sweet pulp. We have long grown it at Kew in the 

 Cactus-house, where it first flowered October, 1866. B. clandestina Brong. 

 inedit. 1 flowered at Paris in 1842, and supposed to be a Mexican species, 

 belongs here. 



2. G. Landbeckii Philippi, Cat. Chil. 278. Bromelia LandhecMi 

 Griseb. ; Philippi in Linnsea, xxxiii. 246. — Leaves ensiform, 

 3-4 ft. long, glabrous on the face, obscurely pubescent on the back, 

 much less rigid in texture than in G. sphacelata, the marginal 

 prickles minute and inconspicuous. Flowers in dense lateral 

 capitula, enclosed in many ovate dark brown reduced leaves 1| in. 

 long, which are not spinose on the margin. Ovary clavate-trique- 

 trous, an inch long ; sepals linear, rather shorter than the ovary. 

 Corolla-lobes ^ in. long. Fruit 2 in. long. 



Hab. Chili ; shady damp woods in the Province of Valdivia, Lechler 

 3098 1 Corral, Oc/isemws ! Pearce 2691 {laJoelled Bromelia Pearcei) . 



3. G. vuLCANicA Andre. — Caudex stout, very short. Leaves 

 ensiform, 2 ft. and more long, green and nearly naked above, finely 

 striated and densely white-lepidote beneath, armed with distant 

 rather ascending straight marginal spines. Inflorescence a laterally 

 compressed capitulum 2-3 in. diam., subsessile amongst the radical 

 leaves ; outer bracts navicular, 1^ in. long, furfuraceous on the back, 

 bright brownish red, inner linear-oblong. Flowers about as long 

 as the outer bracts ; ovary nearly naked, above ^ in. long ; sepals 

 lanceolate, a little longer than the ovary. Corolla with a white 

 tube rather shorter than the calyx and red ovate spreading seg- 

 ments ^ in. long. Stamens reaching halfway up the cor oil a- lobes. 



Hab. Southern Andes of New Granada, on the damp slopes of the Volcano 

 of Azupal, alt. 12000 ft., Andre 2664. Native name "Pinuela." 



3. DiSTiACANTHUs Hort. 



Sepals united in a short tube above the top of the ovary, linear- 

 oblong, not mucronate. Petals lingulate, much longer than the 

 sepals, but spreading only at the tip, not scaled, united at the base 

 in a cylindrical tube. Stamens inserted at the throat of the corolla- 

 tube, much shorter than the petals; filaments filiform; anthers 

 linear, dorsifixed. Ovary inferior, 3-celled ; ovules many in a cell ; 

 style filiform ; stigmas linear, not twisted. Fruit oblong-cylin- 

 drical, baccate. — Inflorescence a central capitulum. Leaves oblong, 

 petioled, spine-margined. 



