112 TUE BOTANY OF BERMUDA. 



weight. These bananas flower and ripen fruit all the year round; but 

 there is considerable difference in the time it takes. A plant flowering 

 in April, with the summer before it, will produce a bunch fit to cut in 90 

 or 100 days ; a plant flowering in November, with the winter before it, 

 will take 150 or 160 days. 



It is almost the only fruit always procurable in Bermuda, but the 

 growth is too much left to chance, little or no horticultural skill being 

 applied to it. 



StreUtzia Reginw, Ait. Crane's bill. 

 To be found in many gardens. 



IV. — BEOMELIACEiE. 



A nanassa mtiva, Mill. Pineapple. 



The pineapple was extensively cultivated in Bermuda in the seven- 

 teenth century, and is frequently referred to the Records. Its complete 

 disappearance concurs with other indications to suggest that the climate 

 has undergone a change. The mean temperature of Bermuda is much be- 

 low that of the Bahamas, where they are so largely grown. Several 

 plants were set out in Mount Langton Garden in 1875, but came to 

 nothing, very possibly, however, from not being fresh enough, from in- 

 sufticient manuring, or for want of skill. 



Billbergia farinom, Hort., and B. tinctoria, Mart. 



Sent from the Botanic Gardens, Cambridge, Mass., 1874. Failed to 



establish themselves. 



V. — Obchide^. 



Spiranthes brevilabris, Lindt. (Q. 8. apicnlata?) 



The only native orchid, now tolerably abundant in Devonshire and 

 Pembroke marshes, where it flowers in May; the species is not fully 

 ascertained. Dr. Rein calls it 8. tortilis, but remarks that he only saw 

 two sped lu ens. 



Se\ eral common West Indian orchids have been introduced from time 

 to time, and occasionally flower, e. g. Oncidium Papilio, Lindl., at Caven- 

 dish ; others at Clarence Hill. The vanilla plant, Vanilla planifoUa, 

 was imported from Trinidad in 1872, but made little growth, and had not 



flowered in 1877. 



VJ. — IRIDE^. 



Iris ciolacea, Sweet. Iris. 

 I. Virginica, Linn. 



SisyrineJmim Bermudiana, Linn., loe. Bermudiana. 

 Native, and universal; classed by Bentham also among native Brit 



