Racinaea fawcettii (Mez) M. A. Spencer & L. B. Sm.

Tillandsia fawcettii Mez, in DC. Monog. Phan. 9: 752. 1896
Plant stemless, I m. or more high; leaves densely rosulate, coriaceous-chartaceous, densely
appressed-pale-lepidote ; sheaths unknown ; blades oblong, nearly 4 cm. wide, rounded-apiculatc ;
scape erect, stout, nearly glabrous; scai)e-bracts ovate, cinereous-Iepidote, the lower ones
acuminate, imbricate, the upper ones acute, equaling the internodes; inflorescence imperfectly
known, laxly tripinnate, not ferruginous-lepidote; axis strongly geniculate, glabrous; branches
remote, suberect, 1 1 cm. long; primary bracts reflexed, equaling the scape-bracts, much shorter
than theaxillary branches; spikes long-stipitatc, very laxly 10-flowered, scarcely more than 8 cm.
long; rhachis undulate, not winged; floral bracts not at all imbricate or concealing the rhachis,
alxiut 7 mm. long, distinctly exceeding the sepals, elliptic, obtuse, more or less incurved at the
apex, coriaceous, even, lepidote; flowers erect, subsessilc; sepals 5 mm. long, rigid, .scaiitly
lepidote.
Type ix>camty: Blue Mountains, Jamaica. Distribution; Cuba, Jamaica, and Haiti (Mez).