BROMELIACE^. (PIXE-APPLE FAMILY.) 497 



3. ALETRIS, L. Star-grass. 



Perianth tubular, scurfy and viscid without, smooth within, 6-cleft, the 

 tube adnate to the base of tlie ovary. Stamens 6, very short, inchided : an- 

 thers sagittate. Style subulate, erect, persistent, and separable : stigmas 3. 

 Capsule ovate, coriaceous. Seeds ovate, ribbed, fixed at the base. — Peren- 

 nial herbs, with slender scape-like linear-bracted stems, bearing at the base a 

 cluster of flat spreading leaves, and at the summit numerous small wliite or 

 yellow flowers in a spiked raceme. 



1. A. farinosa, L. Leaves lanceolate ; spike short (3'- 12'), rigid ; peri- 

 anth white or yellow, cylindrical; style slender; capsule ovate-lanceolate. — 

 Low ground. May -June. — Scape 2° -3° high. Leaves 3' -6' long. Peri- 

 anth 4" long. 



2. A. aurea, AValt. Leaves ovate-lanceolate; vspike elongated (l°-2°), 

 slender ; periautli white or yellow, globose-ovate ; style short ; capsule ovate. 

 Low sandy soil. May -June. — Scape 2° -3° high. Leaves 2' -4' long. 

 Perianth 2" -3" long. 



Order 148. BROMELIACE^JE. (Pixe-Apple Family.) 



Chiefly scurfy epiphytes, with fibrous roots, rigid leaves, and regu- 

 lar conspicuously bracted mostly spiked flowers. — Perianth free, or 

 more or less adnate to the 3-celled ovary, 6-parted, imbricated, the 

 three outer divisions calyx4ike. Stamens 6: anthers 2-celled, in- 

 trorse. Ovules numerous, anatropous, erect or pendulous. Placentce 

 central. Style single : stigmas 3. Fruit berrydike, or 3-celled, 3- 

 valved capsule. Seeds stalked. Embryo small, at the base of copious 

 mealy albumen. 



1. TILLANDSIA, L. Long Moss, Air Plant. 



Sepals rigid. Petals imbricated and tube-like below, spreading above. 

 Stamens filiform, hypogynous. Ovary free. Style slender. Capsule linear 

 or linear-oblong, cartilaginous, septicidally 3-valved, each valve separating 

 into 2 plates. Seeds erect, club-shaped, pointed, raised on a long and hairy 

 stalk. — Radical leaves mostly crowded, imbricated. Petals fugacious. 



* Stem rigid, erect : flowers spiked. 



■<- Floirers scattered : spikes flexuons. 



1. T. Utriculata, Leconte. Leaves scurfy and glaucous, subulate and 

 recurved at the summit, very nutch dilated, concave and imliricated at the 

 l)ase, shorter than the rigid mostly branching stem ; the uppermost small and 

 sheathing ; sepals oblongdinear, obtuse, longer than the bracts, much shorter 

 than tlie capsule; petals white, twice as long as the sepals; stamens exserted. 

 — South Florida. June - July. — Stem 2° - 3° high. 



2. T. flexuosa, Swartz. Scurfy (U°- 2° high) ; leaves rigid (1° long), 

 A^ery broad and spirally imbricated below the middle, and crossed with lines 



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