320 MONOCOTYLEDONES. 



The seeds, in the species whose fruit is a capsule, are often pro- 

 vided with wings (hairs, expansions, etc). Ananassa satiua, Pine- 

 apple (W. Indies, Central America) is cultivated for the sake of 

 its juicy, aromatic fruits, which coalesce with their fleshy bracts 

 and form a large spike-like fruit-cluster (multiple-fruits, 1 Fig 311) 

 bearing on its apex a leafy shoot, which may be used as a cutting. 

 Seeds very rarely developed. Tillandsia (T. usneoides is a fila- 

 mentous, richly branched, rootless epiphyte hanging in masses 

 from trees; Trop. Am.), Aechmea, Sillbergia, Pitcairnia, etc. 



USES. The leaves of the Pine-apple, in its native country, are used for the 

 manufacture of cloth. 



Order 7. Haemodoraceae. 120 species ; in all parts of the world except 

 Europe ; perennial, often tornentose and resembling the Bromeliacese, Iridaceas 

 and Amaryllidaceffi. Hcemodoriini (Australia). To this order belong Ophio- 

 pogon, Peliosanthes, Sanscviera, and others. 



Order 8. The Iridacese have epigynous, hermaphrodite flowers 

 with petaloid perianth as in the Amaryllidacea?, but the interior ichorl 

 of stamens is entirely suppressed, and the 3 developed outer stamens 

 have extrorse anthers (Fig. 279) ; there is 1 style with 3 large, gene- 

 ral \yinore or less leaf -I ike branches bearing the stigmas. Ovary and 

 capsule as in the Amaryllidaceaa and Liliacete. Perennial herbs ; 

 bnlbs are rarely found, but horizontal rhizomes, corms, etc., take 

 their place. The leaves are (except Crocus} as in the Jn'.s, tn-<>- 

 rotved, equitant and sword-like. Flowers or inflorescences terminal. 



The Iris (Flag) has a horizontal rhizome. The flowers are borne 

 in the leaf-axils in fan-like inflorescences (rhipidium). The 

 branches of the style are large and petalaid ; on their under surface 

 may be seen a small projecting shelf (Fig. 312 a) having on its 

 upper surface the stigmatic hairs. Beneath the branches of the 

 style are 3 well protected stamens, and immediately outside these 

 the external perianth-leaves. The honey is secreted in the perianth-tube, 

 and the insects, endeavouring to obtain it through the narrow passages at the 

 base of the stamens, settle upon the outer perianth-leaves, which are bent back- 

 wards and often very hairy along their central line. The insects then rub 

 their backs on the anthers just above them, beneath the branches of the style ; 

 they readily deposit the pollen on the stigma of another flower as they enter it, 

 but cannot do so in withdrawing, since the stigma is pushed back, and self- 

 fertilisati'in is thus avoided. The stylar branches lie close to the outer 

 perianth-leaves, which are just beneath them, or separated by a distance of only 

 6-10 mm. ; the first form of flower is adapted for Rlnnqia ro*truta, the 

 latter for bees. Crocus has vertical, tuberous, underground stems 



1 The aggregation of the fruits of several distinct flowers into one mass. 



