PAXTON'S FLOWER GALDEX. 



159 



Tillaxdsia m axis. A stove Epiphyte belonging to Bromeliads, with scurfy, dry, twisted 

 leaves, and violet flowers issuing from crimson bracts. Native of the province of Buenos 

 Ayres. (Fig. 100, apiece of the inflorescence; 101, a diminished. figure of the plant.) 



Commodore Sulivan, C.B., who brought it to this country in 1841, on his return from the command of the South 

 American station, presented it to Sir Charles Lemon, Bart., M.P., with whom it flowered in March, 1846. It is a 

 native of the interior provinces of Buenos Ayres, high up the Parana, and is stated to be greatly prized there for its 

 delicious perfume, although at no period could Mr. Booth discover that it possessed any fragrance ; and it is probable 

 that the statement referred to T. xiphiifolia, — a very different species. Like the rest of its tribe, it requires the constant 

 heat of a warm damp stove, and similar treatment to that which is usually given to epiphytal Orchids. It thrives very 

 well when attached to a branch of any soft- wooded tree, and suspended from the roof of the stove. In winter it must be 

 kept dry, but during the rest of the year it can scarcely have too much water. Mr. Booth describes the recent plant 

 thus : — 



"Roots numerous, round and slender, deep brown, partly adhering to the branches of trees, or spreading horizontally, 

 as if to draw nourishment from the air. Leaves broad at the base, closely imbricated, so as to have a sort of bulbous 

 appearance ; but otherwise flexuose and recurved, narrow, much longer than the scape, spreading and twisted, with the 

 edges so much incurved as to leave only a deep groove from one end to the other. They vary from 9 inches to a foot in 



length, and are of a deep green, closely covered with brownish red blotches, 

 jj£ and speckled with minute white scurfs. The scape rises from the centre of 



6 inches high, round at the base, and covered with 

 several sheathing leaves, which closely embrace 

 it. Xear the top, it enlarges, and becomes 

 two-sided, with moderately large oblong acu- 

 minate sheathing, imbricated bracts, of a bril- 

 liant red, tinged with brownish green at the 

 base. The flowers, which appear to be only 

 two in number, issue from underneath the third 

 and fourth bract from the top. They are erect, 

 of a purplish lilac colour, and ratller more than 

 an inch long. Sepals ? Petals three, united at 

 the base, but so arranged, from being convolute 

 as to form a kind of tube, very slightly recurved 

 at the point. Filaments of the same purplish 

 colour as the petals, comparatively broad and 

 thin, and projecting about a quarter of an inch 

 beyond the tube. Style the same length as 

 the filaments, but round, and of a pale colour, 

 excepting at the extremity, which is a green- 

 ish yellow, and 3-lobed." 



This is nearly related to the plant origin- 

 ally named T. bulbosa by Sir W. Hooker, in 

 his " Exotic Flora," t. 17 3, from a poor specimen 

 obtained from Trinidad. But we can scarcely 

 regard it as the same species, any more than 

 a very handsome plant, with long spreading 

 crimson bracts, obtained from Jamaica by Sir 

 W. Hooker, and figured in the " Botanical 

 Magazine," t. 4288, under the name of T. 

 bulbosa, variety picta. There appears to be 

 several species of Tillandsia possessing the 

 peculiarity of having the bases of the enlarged 

 leaves collected into a kind of bulb, but other- 

 wise differing as much among each other as 

 species of the same genus generally do. Since 

 some are beautiful things, and very likely to 

 reach our gardens, we take the present oppor- 

 tunity of pointing out in what we conceive their peculiarities to reside. In the first place, 

 there is the original T. bulbosa, whose spike has all the bracts green and fertile, with some 

 tendency to branch. Next it stands our T. inanis, with a perfectly simple spike, whose bracts are coloured red, and all 

 flowerless, except the two uppermost. Another is the supposed variety of T. bulbosa, already mentioned, with the upper 



