PUYA. 127 



p. suherosa Molina. P. coarctata Fisch. Sert. Petrop. t. 19. 

 Pourretia coarctata Euiz et Pav. Fl. Peruv. iii. 32 ; Gandich. 

 Atlas Bonite t. 41 — 44. Pitcairnia coarctata Pers. Pienealvua 

 ranwsa lutea Feuill. Obs. iii. 59 t. 39. — Caudex 6-10 ft. long, as 

 thick as a man, often branched and flexuose. Leaves 100 or more 

 in a rosette, ensiform-acuminate, 3-4 ft. long, 1-1 i in. broad above 

 the dilated base, tapering gradually to a long point, very rigid, 

 green and glabrous on the face, white-lepidote and vertically lineate 

 on the back, armed with large distant spreading toothed horny 

 spines, the lower ^— |- in. long. Peduncle stout, erect, much 

 longer than the leaves ; upper bract-leaves recurved. Inflores- 

 cence a dense rhomboid panicle 2-3 ft. long, with crowded dense- 

 flowered erecto-patent racemose branches which are sterile towards 

 the tip ; branch-bracts large, ovate, acute ; rachis and flowers 

 more or less floccose ; flower-bracts ovate, scariose, the lower an 

 inch long ; pedicels short, erecto-patent. Sepals ovate-lanceolate, 

 an inch long. Petals oblong-spathulate, pale greenish-yellow, 

 twice as long as the calyx. Genitalia much shorter than the petals. 

 Var. P. GiGANTEA Pliilippi in Linnaea, xxxiii. 246. — Caudex 

 10-15 ft. long. Leaves erect, green beneath, with shorter more 

 robust less hooked floccose prickles. 



Hab. Northern provinces of Chili; Valparaiso, Concepcion, &c. Native 

 names " Puya " and " Cardon." The variety found by Landbeck on the shores 

 of Aconcagua. The structure of the woody caudex is excellently illustrated in 

 Gaudichaud's plates. There is an excellent life-sized painting of the plant in 

 Miss North's gallery. A plant received from Mr. A. B. Lambert was flowered at 

 Kew in 1853. The stem is used in Chili for corks and bungs, and the spines by 

 the Indians for fish-hooks. 



14. P. Thomasiana Andre Enum. 5. — Caudex short and stout. 

 Leaves densely rosulate, ensiform, 3-3^ ft. long, bordered with 

 stout recurved spines. Peduncle including the panicle 6-12 ft. 

 long. Panicle pyramidal ; branches 6-12 in. long, covered, 

 especially upwards, with reddish pubescence ; branch-bracts ovate- 

 acuminate, spine-margined ; flower-bracts ovate, nearly glabrous, 

 much shorter than the calyx. Sepals ovate-oblong, acute, covered 

 with reddish pubescence. Petals obovate, broadly unguiculate, 

 2 in. long, pale greenish- blue. Stamens and style rather shorter 

 than the petals. Capsule ovoid, acute. Seeds compressed, with a 

 horny wing all round. 



Hab. Andes of New Granada ; rocky banks of the Kio Guaitara, between 

 Pasto and Tuquerres, alt. 6000 ft. Andre 8191. Named after M. Jules Thomas 

 of Tuquerres. 



*' Several months after this when at Lima, M. Raimondi, the 

 celebrated Peruvian traveller, spoke to me of another giant Brome- 

 liad he had discovered in the department of Ancachs. This plant, 

 which grew in the Quebrada de Cashapampa, not far from the little 

 town of Huaraz, had stems 33f ft. in height, and its flowers, which 

 were disposed in panicles, he reckoned at not less than 8000. He 

 found it at an altitude of 3800 metres above sea-level." — Andre in 

 the ' Garden,' 1882, 309 (under P. ijitjas). 



