236 TlMEHRl. 
within. Here there is an early arrest in the growth of 
the two or three heart leaves, with a wonderful and 
abnormal development of the external ones, which stand 
erect and clasp each other, forming a well-shaped tube. 
From the exceptional habit and plentiful distribution 
of this plant the savannah derives one of its most 
memorable features. Brocchinia has hitherto been 
a little known genus, established on a single West 
Indian plant, found in St. Kitts and Dominica. 
Yet a third new bromeliad inhabits the savannah, 
not of the same genus as the two preceding, but not 
less deserving of notice for its exceptional character. 
I allude to ALchmea brassicoides, Baker, which is 
found plentifully on the weather-beaten rocks and 
boulders of the brows and walls of the great precipices 
on either hand of the Kaieteur, and is, as well, very 
abundant on the ground and the trunks of trees in 
the drier parts of the savannah, apparently requiring 
full exposure to the sun and arid conditions of life for 
its growth. It has a ligneous creeping rhizome, which 
spreads and branches freely, forming in favorable places 
quite a net-work, adhering to the surface. At intervals 
as the rhizome develops, buds are thrown up, which 
when full grown assume the form of well turned-in 
hearts of spring cabbage. The leaves are of two 
kinds, distinct from each other in form, texture, colour, 
armature and habit. Those of the outer series spread 
flatly on the ground or other supporting surface ; they 
are narrowly oblong but abruptly dilated at the base, 
prickly on the margins, and in substance leathery ; while 
the inner ones are erect, plain on the edges, oval and 
