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IOWA ACADEMY OP SCIENCE Vol. XXVI, 1319 



great "cistern epiphytes" (Bromelia sp.), which grow, sometimes in 

 great numbers, on the manchineel and other trees in the wooded 

 districts of Antigua and to some extent of Barbados. These air 

 plants, known locally as "wild pineapples," are the most completely 

 epiphytic of the entire group to which they belong and are mechani- 

 cally but not physiologically attached by their roots to the branches 

 of the trees. Nutrition is brought about by absorption through the 

 leaves which are ordinarily from two to four and one-half feet long 



Fig. 30. Epiphytes and cacti in a tropical jungle, Antigua, British "West 

 Indies. 



and about two inches wide. Upon carefully removing one of these 

 "pines" from the limb to which it is rather loosely attached one us- 

 ually finds more or less water held at the bases of the channeled 

 leaves where they overlap to form a sort of pitcher. On turning the 

 pine upside down cockroaches, spiders, scorpions, ants and beetles 

 are pretty sure to be dislodged and in most instances mosquitoes also. 

 Both the larvae and adults of the latter are often found in the same 

 plant and apparently the pest breeds in these natural reservoirs. No 

 doubt, too, the cool moist air here is most welcome to all these ar- 

 thropods during the heat of a tropical day. 



The State University of Iowa. 



