THE BROMELIADS OF BRAZIL 



By MUT.FOED B. FOSTEB 



Orlando, Fla. 



[With 10 plates] 



The plant family Bromeliaceae — the pineapple family — comprises 

 some 50 genera with more than 1,600 known species, 400 of them native 

 to the Americas from Panama north, and at least a dozen native to 

 the United States, most of these in Florida. Although these brome- 

 liads, as they are called, are as yet little known in the States, neverthe- 

 less until recently it was thought to be the "largest family of plants 

 to be wholly confined in origin to the New World." ^ Now, however, 

 one species of a Pltcairnia has been found in Africa. This is the only 

 report of Bromeliaceae native outside the Western Hemisphere. 



The most complete and outstanding botanical contribution to the 

 knowledge of this family was the monograph by Mez published in 

 Germany in 1934-35. In this country, work on the Bromeliaceae con- 

 tinues in the able hands of Dr. Lyman B. Smith, of the Gray Herbarium 

 at Harvard, who is now recognized as the foremost authority. 



WHERE THE BROMELIADS GROW 



The range of the widespread Spanish moss {Tillandsia usneoides) 

 marks the outer boundaries of this interesting family, which extends 

 over all the tropical and subtropical areas of the Americas. From 

 southeastern Virginia through Central and South America across the 

 Argentine and from Chile up as far as Baja California, this cosmo- 

 politan group of plants has spread itself. 



The wide range of bromeliads gives them versatile growth habits, 

 for they are happy in the desert, by the side of the ocean, in the wet- 

 test jungles, in full or part sun, and in complete or partial shade, and 

 they grow on almost anything, including the smooth or rough bark 

 of trees, on rocks, in sand, on cacti, on palms, and even clinging on 



1 Smith, L. B., Geograpliical evidence on the Unes of evolution in the Bromeliaceae, 

 Sonderdr. Hot. Jahrb., Bd. 66, Heft 4, p. 447, 1934. 



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