BARBACENIA PURPUREA. 
(Purple-flowered Barbaoenia.) 
Clan. Order. 
HEXANDRIA. MONOGYNIA. 
Natural Order. 
BROMELIACEiE. 
Generic Character, — Perianth adnate to the ovary, 
funnel-shaped, six-cleft. Filaments two-cleft. Anthers 
affixed by the base to the back of the filaments. 
Capsule three-celled. Seeds numerous. 
Specific Character. — Stems scarcely any, dichoto- 
mous, with a few striated brownish scales. Leaves 
linear, somewhat spirally twisted, carinated, striated, 
rigid, with distinct minute marginal teeth pointing 
upwards, sheathing at the base. Scape much longer 
than the leaves, obtusely trigonal, scabrous upwards, 
single-flowered. Flowers erect, purple. Petals six, 
united into a tube at the base, lanceolate ; three outer 
narrower, reflexed, and much acuminated, obscurely 
striated ; three inner broader, waved, more erect, 
acute, veined. Filaments linear and petaloid, purple, 
opposite the petals. A nthers two-celled. Style oblong, 
as high as the anthers, with three white glands below 
the point. 
This beautiful little plant was the first of the genus known in this country, 
and is a worthy companion for the orange-red flowered B. squamata, introduced 
recently by Messrs. Veitch, of Exeter, and figured in our volume for 1844. 
The manner in which it was first obtained in England is precisely similar 
to that recorded last month of the Achimenes hirsuta, and should act as a caution 
to the importers of foreign plants to be careful in examining the materials amongst 
which their plants are packed. The seeds were discovered by the Hon. and Rev, 
W. Herbert, of Spofforth, amongst a quantity of Brazilian Moss ; and, being sown, 
produced the pretty species depicted on the opposite page. Some of the young 
plants thus raised being sent to the collection of Earl Fitzwilliam, at Went worth 
House, Yorkshire, were flowered by his Lordship's able gardener, Mr. Cooper, 
and forwarded to Sir W. J. Hooker, by whom the specific name was accorded, 
and a figure given in the Botanical Magazine ; and from the accompanying 
description we have abstracted the specific characters given above. 
It is a product of Brazil ; and Mr. Gardner, in his recent exploration of that 
country, met with it near the foot of the mountains about two miles south of the 
town of Rio Janeiro. It there grows abundantly in places where a little vegetable 
mould has accumulated, amongst which it vegetates and blooms with the utmost 
luxuriance. 
All the leaves spring from near the same point, forming a tuft round the base, 
which scarcely elongates into a stem. They are of a very rigid nature, and differ 
