Werauhia laxa (Mez & Wercklé) J. R. Grant

Thecophyllum laxum Mez & Werckl^; Mez, Bull Herb. Boiss. II. 4: 1123. 1904.
Stemless, the flowering plant slender, up to 5 dm. high; leaves as many as 13 in a den.se rosette, erect or suberect, about 25 cm. long; sheaths indistinct, ovate-elliptic, pale-lepidote, usually marked with paleviolet longitudinal lines; blades acuminate, about 2 cm. wide, subchartaceous when dry; scape strict, very slender, nearly twice as long as the leaves, glabrous; scape-bracts erect, appressed, distinctly shorter than the internodes, elliptic, acute, not at all foliaceous; inflorescence laxly few-flowered, 13 cm. long, 3 cm. in diameter, glabrous; primary bracts like the scape-bracts, shorter than the sterile base of the spike; branches about 7, erect, compressed, the lower ones up to 4 cm. long, bearing a flower and a rudiment at the ape. and a second flower 10 ram. below the ape.; floral bracts elliptic, obtuse, 4 mm. long, much shorter than the sepals, membranaceous; pedicels very short and stout; sepals broadly elliptic, obtuse,
8 mm. long, 6 mm. wide, coriaceous, free.
Type locality: Costa Rica. Distribution: Costa Rica.