leaves a dozen or more in a short rosette, sessile, oblanceolate-oblong, 6–9 in; long, 1 ½ in; broad in the middle, narrowed gradually to a broad base, moderately firm in texture, furnished on the face with a paler vertical band on each side of the darker green centre, as in c; bivittatus, but less distinct, thinly white-lepidote on the back, acute, the marginal prickles small and distinct. flowers in a small rosette in the centre of the reduced ovate inner leaves; petals blade oblong, white, 1/3 in; long.Edited from : Baker 1889. (protologue) Handbook of the Bromeliaceae .