Tillandsia excelsa Griseb.

Tillandsia excelsa Griseb. Fl. Brit. W. Ind. 597. 1864
Tillandsia costaricana Mez & Werckl^; Mez, Bull. Herb. Boiss. II. 3: 143. 1903. Tillandsia coslarricensis Mez & WerckI6; WerckI6, Subr. Fit. Costarric. 33, hyponym. 1909.
Plant stemless, often over 1 m. high; leaves densely rosulate, 45 cm. long, obscurely punctulate-lepidote, light-green, sometimes suffused or marked with red or purple; sheaths conspicuous, suborbicular; blades ligulate, acute, up to 6 cm. wide; scape erect, glabrous; scape-bracts foliaceous, densely imbricate and concealing the scape, spreading toward apex; inflorescence barely or amply tripinnate, pyramidal, red when living, glabrous throughout; primary bracts large and foliaceous, the lower ones exceeding the axillary branches; secondary bracts narrowly lanceolate, slightly shorter than the axillary spikes; spikes lanceolate or elliptic, acute, dense, up to 8-flowered but usually much less; floral bracts suberect, 2 to 3 times as long as the internodes but so narrow as to expose the rhachis, narrowly elliptic, acute, exceeding the sepals, convex, ecarinate, coriaceous, even to distinctly nerved; flowers subsessile, 25-30 mm. long; sepals linear-lanceolate, acute, 15-20 mm. long, coriaceous, even or nerved, subfree; petals violet; stamens and pistil included; capsule cylindric, short-beaked, 3 cm. long.
Type locality: Jamaica.
Distribution: Central America; Cuba and Jamaica.

Tillandsia werckleana Mez, Bull. Herb. Boiss 11.3:144. 1903.
Stemless, up to 6 dm. high; leaves about 15 in a dense subutriculate rosette, 2 dm. long; sheaths broadly ovate, very large, densely and minutely brown-punctulate, margins and apex dark-violet; blades ligulate, abruptly acute and apiculate, 18 mm. wide, minutely violet-spotted, subglabrous, chartaceous when dry; scape erect, stout, exceeding the leaves; scape-bracts erect, short, densely imbricate, foliaceous; inflorescence many-flowered, amply paniculate with the P.U5T 2, 1938] BROMELIACEAE 117
lower branches dmded, slenderly thyrsoid, 3 dm. long, 5 cm. in diameter; axes angled, glabrous; lower primary bracts like the scape-bracts, ample, equaling or exceeding the axillary branches; spikes subdense, rarely more than 6-flowered, elliptic in outline, abruptly acute, 4 cm. long, 22 mm. wide; rhachis nearly straight; floral bracts erect, laxly imbricate, hardly concealing the rhachis at anthesis, subobtuse, 20-25 mm. long, coriaceous, glabrous, carinate and prominently nerv'ed toward the apex; flowers suberect, short-pedicellate; sepals oblong, obtuse, IS mm. long, submembranaceous, sparsely punctulate-lepidote, the posterior ones short-connate and slightly carinate; petals only slightly longer than the sepals; capsule stout, short-beaked, 16 mm. long.
Type locality: Near Cartago, Costa Rica, altitude 1200-1600 meters. Distribution: Known only from the type collection.