BARBACENIA SQUAMATA. 
(Scaly Barbacenia.) 
Class. Order. 
HEXANDRIA. MONOGYNIA. 
Natural Order . 
BROMELIACEjE. 
Generic Character. — Perianth a corolla, adhering 
;o the face of the ovarium, funnel-shaped, six-cleft. 
\\F (laments bifid. Anthers fixed by the hack to the 
| ower part of the divisions of the perianth. Fruit a 
I hree-celled capsule. Seeds numerous. 
Specific Character — Plant an herbaceous perennial. 
Stem short, simple, densely clothed with leaves. Leaves 
linear, acuminate, smooth, slightly glaucous, with nu- 
merous minute spinous serratures at the margins. 
Scape a little longer than the leaves. Flowers with a 
cylindrical tube, longer than the ovarium, and a 
spreading limb. Filaments short. 
For the introduction of this plant, cultivators are indebted to the enterprising 
seal of Messrs. Veitch and Sons, of Exeter, whose collector, Mr. Lobb, forwarded 
eeds from Brazil, in 1841, from which a number of plants have been raised, which 
lave flowered in the valuable collection of those gentlemen during the spring of 
he present year ; and from one that they exhibited in March, at the Horticultural 
neeting in Regent Street, we have been enabled, through their obliging attention, 
o prepare the accompanying drawing. 
The genus Barbacenia has been long known to the admirers of plants through 
he B. purpurea, another Brazilian species of considerable merit ; and through the 
nore recently introduced B. gracilis. Besides the present, these are the only 
pecies which have been received in England. 
Twelve species are mentioned by Martius in his Plantarum Braziliensis ; and 
ngravings and descriptions of six are furnished in the same work, all of which are 
Afferent from the three above mentioned. They were found growing on arid situa- 
ions on mountains, at an elevation of from 1000 to 1500 feet, and only between 
he 14th and 23d degrees of latitude. One of those species, B. tricolor , apparently 
tears a strong resemblance to the subject of our plate, but is a dwarfer plant, and 
ssentially distinct in specific character. The leaves are shorter than the scape ; 
nd the flowers, instead of having the inside of the petals of a deeper colour than 
he outer, are just reversed. 
Most of the species — and amongst them the present must be enumerated — have 
ong narrow leaves collected on a short stem into a tuft, and when without their 
lowers have an appearance resembling some of our mountain sedges. 
