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Puya (Native name of the plant)

(the native name of the plant in Chili). SYN. Pourretia. ORD. Bromeliaceae. A genus (eight or ten species) of stove or greenhouse, perennial herbs, natives of Chili and Peru. Flowers showy, blue, yellow, or white, solitary, disposed in a simple or pyramidal-branched, terminal raceme; sepals free, oblong or lanceolate, loosely imbricated; petals free, connivent in a tube at the base, spreading above, rather broad. Leaves either at the base or tip of the stem, clustered, spiny-serrate. The two species here described--probably the only ones in cultivation--thrive in a compost of loam and peat. Propagation is easily effected by suckers, or by seeds when procurable.

P. Altensteinii (Altenstein's). A synonym of Pitcairnia Altensteinii. P. caerulea (blue). A synonym of P. Whytei.

P. gigas (giant). fl. white or rose-coloured, disposed in erect spikes, from 18ft. to 30ft. in height. l. tufted, linear-lanceolate, hoary, spiny-toothed, mealy-white beneath. New Grenada, 1881. An extraordinary species. (R. H. 1881, 74; Gn., May 6, 1882.) It is very uncertain to what genus this plant really belongs, as the flowers have not been seen by any specialist. It has the foliage of an Agave.

P. grandiflora (large-flowered). A synonym of Pitcairnia ferruginea. P. heterophylla (variable-leaved). A synonym of Pitcairnia heterophylla. P. longifolia (long-leaved). A synonym of Pitcairnia heterophylla. P. maidifolia (Indian Corn-leaved). A synonym of Pitcairnia maidifolia. P. sulphurea (sulphur-coloured). A synonym of Pitcairnia Wendlandi. P. virescens (greenish). A synonym of Pitcairnia virescens. P. Warcewiczii (Warcewicz's). A synonym of Pitcairnia atrorubens. P. Whytei (Whyte's). fl of a peculiar metallic greenishblue colour, with bright orange anthers, disposed in a large, pyramidal panicle, on a tall scape. Autumn. l. tufted, crowded, recurved, elongately subulate, remotely spinescent. h. 3ft. Chili, 1867. A handsome plant, quite hardy in the South of England. (B. M. 5732.) SYN. P. caerulea.