BROMELIADS — FOSTER 363 



a trunk 7 or 8 feet long. Most of the Dyckias increase by stolons or 

 side shoots and form bed masses of plants. 



Clinging to the granite rocks in a similar position on the Atlantic 

 coast, but much farther north in the state of Espirito Santo, we found 

 a new Encholirium. This, too, had developed a prostrate trunk, and 

 it might well have been named Encholirium dychioides^ but my descrip- 

 tion convinced Dr. Smith that the best name for the plant was 

 Encholirium horridum^ for my flesh was badly scratched and torn 

 when I cut my way over a huge colony of these plants with their 

 formidable, stiff masses of barbed leaves. This was the first species 

 of Encholirium to show a branched inflorescence. It was the second 

 new species in the genus for us, as we had discovered our first new one 

 in Bahia and named it Encholirium Hoehneanum- in honor of Dr. 

 F. C. Hoehne of Sao Paulo. 



One of our trips took us into both dry and humid territory in 

 Bahia, northern Brazil. Here was a wide range of conditions, varying 

 from the hot sands of the sea coast, where we found our new Hohen- 

 l)ergia littoralis^ to the dry caatinga similar to the mesquite lands of 

 Mexico. In this dry, shadowless desert covered with thorny, harsh 

 vegetation punctuated with a few tall cacti we found the new Cryp- 

 tanthus hahianus. During our month there we added nine new 

 species to the total from that state, including Gryptanthofsis na- 

 vioides. Of this latter genus only one species had ever been collected, 

 and that by Ulc some 30 years ago. This interesting whorl of 

 delicately spined, stiff, grasslike leaves grew in a moist ravine in ex- 

 tremely dry country, a habitat similar to that preferred by most 

 species of Gryptanthus. 



Under the open, thorny vegetation we found another individualistic 

 bromeliad, Neoglaziovia variegata. The dull, brown-green leaves 

 of this plant with their vivid whitish bands look at first glance like 

 snakes. In Brazil it is one of the most useful bromeliads, having 

 been used by the Indians for centuries — and now on a commercial 

 scale — as a source of excellent fiber which is stronger than sisal 

 and makes a cloth that is softer than linen. The natives call the 

 plant caroa or caraguafa, names that are also used for several other 

 kinds of terrestrial plants that yield fibers. 



I am convinced that the type of country tends to produce the 

 change in plants that creates varieties and species, and certainly it is 

 the adaptability of the bromeliads that has made the family so pro- 

 lific. Plants with this quality, like people, go places and do things 

 and make the best of a situation even if they have to change their 

 color, habits, food, or methods of travel. Every hundred feet of 

 elevation, and sometimes even every mile from the sea, one sees a 

 change in the bromeliads. When soil conditions, rocks, precipitation, 



