Tas. 6309. 
TILLANDSIA USNEOIDES. 
Native of Tropical America. 
Nat. Ord. BromMELiAcE2. 
Genus Tritanpsia, Linn. (Endl. Gen. Plant. p. 183). 
TILLaNDstA (Strepsis) usneoides : squamulis patulis argenteis cana, e basi ramosis- 
sima, ramis filiformibus inordinate flexuosis intricatis pendulis, foliis bifariis 
patentibus v. recurvis subremotis filiformibus teretibus acuminatis canalicu- 
latis, vaginis teretibus, floribus parvis terminalibus viridibus subsessilibus, 
sepalis lanceolatis 3-nerviis bracteis convolutis 3-nerviis acuminatis subduplo 
longioribus, petalorum unguibus 5-nerviis sepalis equantibus lamina oblonga 
recurva apice rotundata, staminibus inclusis antheris linearibus, filamentis 
filiformibus glabris, ovario oblongo, stylo breviusculo, stigmate 3-lobo. 
T. usneoides, Linn. ; Lamk. Encycl. t. 224, £ 2. Chapman Flor. 8, U. States, 
472, Griseb, Fl. Brit. W. Ind. p. 598. Sloane Hist. Jam. t. 122, f. 2, 3. 
This, the Spanish Moss, Old Man’s Beard, and Long Moss, 
of the Southern United States and the West Indies, is well 
described in Sloane’s History of Jamaica as a ‘ mossie plant 
. . . with stalks the bigness of a thread, consisting of a 
thin skin, whitish, as if covered with a hoar-frost, having 
within that a long tough black hair, like a horse-hair . . .- 
very often a yard long, hanging down on both sides from the 
branches of the trees they adhere to, being curled, or twining 
and winding within another, and making a show of an old 
man’s beard (whence the name), or as if they were made to 
climb, which I never saw they did.” Further on he says, 
‘it is used to pack up anything which otherwise may easily 
be broken, as cotton is sometimes made use of with us;” 
and again, “the inward black hairs of this moss’s stalk are 
made use of by the birds called Watchipickets for making 
their curiously contrived nests hanging on the twigs of trees.” 
To this description I have little to add, except that the 
Spanish Moss is a very widely distributed plant in the hotter 
parts of America, from Carolina to South Brazil, and on the 
JULY iar, i877. 
