NOTES AND OBSERVATIONS. 163 



reporting it as very common on trees along the banks of the 

 St. John's river and its tributaries, the cup formed by the 

 imbricated leaves being filled with water. Mention was 

 also made of the fact that the flowers were cream colored, 

 in contrast with the usual purple of the genus. This speci- 



men 



Garden 



material for the accompanying plate. 



Tillandsia utriculata was one of the plants to attract the 

 attention of earlier botanical explorers of the West Indian 

 region, as is evident from the citations of Linnaeus under 

 his description in the Species Plantarum. Bartram, writing 

 in 1791, mentions it under the name of T. lingulata as a 



very 



greatly resembling, at some 



a well-grown plant of the pine apple. He adds that 

 " the large deep green leaves are placed in an imbricated 

 order, and ascendant ; but their extremities are reflex, their 

 bases gibbous and hollowed, like a ladle, and capable of 

 containing near a pint of water." Mr. Baker, in his clas- 

 sical revision of the large genus Tillandsia, places this 



Koch 



formin 



tichous, the petal blade Ungulate, with the claw scaleless, 

 and long style and stamens. Of this group, utriculata is 

 the only species possessing a large loose panicle. Accord- 

 ing to Baker it most nearly resembles T. jlexuosa, from 

 which it differs in its non-distichous spikes. Its distribu- 

 tion appears to be through southern Florida, the Bahamas 

 and West Indies, Trinidad and Venezuela.* 



T. utriculata is less densely scurfy than many of its con- 



Bot. Gaz. ii. 7. T. lingulata, Bartram, Travels, 59, and French transla- 

 tion, 1. 122. T. Nuttallii, Roem. & Sch. 1. c. T. Bartrami, Nutt. Sill. 

 Journ. (2) v. 292. T. Jlexuosa, var. pallida, Lindl. Bot. Reg. pi. 749. 

 Platystachys utriculata, Beer, Broinel. 266. P. Ehrenbergii, Koch. 

 Allardtia Potockii, Antoine, Oesterr. Bot. Zeitschr. 1878, 56. Vriesia 

 ramosa, Beer. — The bibliography chiefly from Baker. 

 * Baker, I. c; Hitchcock, Fourth Garden Rept. 135, 169. 



