BARBACENIA ROGIEEII. 
BAEBACEAIA EOGIEEII. 
Nat. Order. —ELemodoraceas. 
Generic Character. —Barbacenia, Vandelli .— Perianth 
corolline, funnel-shaped, hairy-resinous outside; tube connate 
with the ovary at the base ; limb six-toothed with equal erecto- 
patent lobes. Stamens six, inserted at the bottom of the lobes 
of the limb, erect, included; filaments piano-compressed, three¬ 
toothed at the apex, the middle tooth smaller and antheriferous ; 
anthers linear, affixed by the back in the middle or near the 
base. Ovary inferior, three celled. Ovules numerous, inserted 
on placentas projecting from the central angle of the cell; 
style three-sided, three-parted; stigma capitate three-sided. 
Capsule inferior, somewhat three-sided, three-celled, loculieidally 
three-valved, valves bearing the septa in their middle, carrying 
away the placentas. Seeds numerous, angular.—Perennial 
herbs, met with in Brazil, between the 14° and 23° north lati¬ 
tude, in dry sunny places in the primaeval mountain forests. 
Caudex 'simple or clichotomously branched, or two or three feet 
high, densely clothed with the remains of leaves; leaves spirally 
arranged at the summit, half-embracing, erecto-patent, narrow, 
acute, keeled, rather hard, adherent together at the base with a 
viscous-resinous juice; peduncles or scapes solitary or several 
between the leaves, one-flowered, roundish, or three-sided, 
covered with resinous hairs or elavate glands towards the sum¬ 
mit, more rarely simply pubescent or rather glabrous ; flowers 
large, clothed externally in the same way as the scape, of a 
beautiful green, red, or yellow, glabrous within, frequently 
variegated.—( Endl. Gen. Plant. 1261). 
Barbacenia Rogierii— Rogier’s Barbacenia.—Leaves linear 
acuminate, closely imbricated, with broad semi-amplexicaul 
bases, finely spinulose-serrate on the margins and keel, spread¬ 
ing and recurved; scape stout, tuberculated upwards, shorter 
than the leaves ; petaloid lobes of the filaments broadly linear- 
oblong, deeply bifid, longer than the anthers; ovary about an 
inch long, triangular below, swollen above, ribbed and tubercu¬ 
lated in lines. 
Synonymy. —Barbacenia Rogierii, of the Belgian Gardens. 
B ESCEIPTIOA.—Larger in all its parts than B. pnrpurea from which it is not easy to 
separate it by description. The stem is erect and stout, rising somewhat above the surface 
of the soil, and is marked with the scars of fallen leaves. The leaves are rather thin, striated, 
linear, acuminated, scarcely keeled at the base, which is expanded, half embracing the stem ; they 
are closely imbricated at them bases, becoming spreading and recurved above, forming a dense, 
somewhat flattened, elongated bunch at the summit of the stem; the margins, as well as the 
midrib at the back, have numerous fine spinules, pointing both forwards and backwards 
irregularly. The scapes are single flowered, nearly erect, arising in the axils of the upper 
leaves, shorter than these, and clothed, especially toward the upper part, with blunt glandular 
points, giving a scabrous surface. The perianth more than two inches in expansion, is of a rich 
velvet-like purple blended with maroon; the tube adherent to the ovary, about an inch long 
bluntly triangular below, and somewhat swollen above, the outer surface ribbed and clothed 
with glandular points like those of the scape; the segments of the limb are spreading, somewhat 
recurved, more than an inch long, the three outer lobes lanceolate, suddenly acuminated, the 
three inner lobes broader, terminating in a short apiculus, all marked with longitudinal parallel 
lines or ribs, which, on the midrib of the inner circle, and the exterior of the outer circle, are 
studded with minute elevated glandular points; the outer surface is shining, the inner velvet¬ 
like. Stamens six, inserted at the mouth of the tube, erect; the petaloid lobes of the filaments 
are broadly linear-oblong, and deeply bifid, half an inch long, forming a kind of coronet in the 
throat of the perianth; anthers shorter than the filaments, linear oblong; stigma thickened 
upwards, three-cornered.—A. II. 
Theoretically some botanists consider the stamens in this genus to be eighteen in number, 
the bifid petaloid bodies, to which the anthers are affixed, being taken to represent a pair of 
barren filaments, standing right and left of each fertile stamen. 
History, &c. —This very handsome plant was introduced to English collections in the early 
part of the present year, from the nursery of M. Yan Hontte, of Ghent. We have no further 
account of its origin, although it is no doubt South American. Our drawing was made from a 
plant which flowered in the garden of the Eoyal Botanic Society in the Begent's Park, during 
the month of Inly; and our description was partly drawn up from additional examples, which 
bloomed shortly afterwards in the collection of Messrs. Henderson, of the Pine-Apple Aursery, 
Edgeware Eoad. The specific name under which it has been received in England from the 
Belgian gardens, has probably been given in compliment to M. Eogier, a member of King 
Leopold’s cabinet, to whom Hr. Planchon has recently dedicated a genus of Cinehonaceous 
plants, of which some species are grown in M. Yan Houttc's establishment (see p. 85). 
Culture. The Barbacenias are tropical plants, and the smaller species, such as that now 
figured, are often found to grow naturally in places where vegetable soil has accumulated, and 
where, accordingly, while excited by the tropical atmosphere of the Brazilian forests, their 
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