PINEAPPLE FAMILY 39 



form, and are slightly fragrant at night. Nor is it a 

 parasite, as its habit suggests ; our plants of this family use 

 the trees merely as supports, and do not penetrate their 

 tissues. The seeds are equipped with feathery parachutes, 

 which float them in the air and hold them to the bark 



of trees. 



The attractive drive from Daytona to New Smyrna is re- 

 markable not only for the great oaks ^ along the way, but 

 also for the abundance of this air plant, hanging in festoons 

 from the branches, which are upholstered too, as it were, 

 by colonies of the little resurrection fern, Polypodium 

 polypodioides, which apparently dies during dry weather, 

 only to revive in fresh greenness with each rain. 



Spanish moss is used commercially as filling for mat- 

 tresses and cushions; for this purpose the gray outer 

 covering of the stems is destroyed, leaving a black "vege- 

 table hair." 



Dendropogon usneoides (Tillandsia). Elowers yellowish 

 green, small, solitary from leaf-axils, petals recurved. Stems 

 long, hanging from trees. Leaves^ threadlike, gray, scurfy, 

 1-3 in. long. Blooming from spring to fall. Fla. to Ya. 

 and Texas. 



Air Plants. Wild Pines (Genus Tillandsia) 



The clustered leaves of air plants are usually dilated at 

 the base, forming reservoirs that hold water and faUen 

 leaves; this, together with air and atmospheric dust, is 

 their food, yet from such meager fare they produce many 

 leaves and brilliantly decked spikes of bloom. 



These strange plants which, like the Spanish moss, 

 fasten themselves on trees, are most abundant in the 

 southern part of the peninsula, where in hammocks and 

 swamps they grow in profusion. In this region they 



* These magnificent live oaks have been cut down since this was 

 written. 



