402 THE PINE-APPLE AND THE ALISMA FAMILIES. 



cultivated belong chiefly to the genera Canna, Maranta, and Calathea, 

 the latter esteemed for their velvety and painted foliage. Like the 

 Scitamineaj, they are exclusively hot-house plants. These two families 

 are illustrated in one of the finest volumes of coloured drawings of 

 flowers ever produced, Roscoe's " Monandrian Plants," a copy of which 

 enriches the Chetham library. (See " Manchester Walks and Wild- 

 flowers, chap, ix.) 



CXXXII.— THE PINE-APPLE FAMILY. Bromelidcece. 



Handsome and very peculiar herbaceous plants, with hard, dry, and 

 channelled leaves, often scurfy upon the surface, and spinous at the 

 edge or point, and with their gay flowers in large panicles or racemes. 

 They are natives exclusively of tropical America, and hence, like the 

 Scitaminea;, &c., are in England never seen out of the hot-house. 

 The species in cultivation comprise Billbergias, Tillandsias, Pitcairnias, 

 and the splendid JEchmea fulgens, which is a blaze of scarlet and 

 purple ; and above all, the delicious pine-apple, or Anayiassa sativa. 

 The latter, requiring special treatment in order to ripen well, is gene- 

 rally grown in quantities by itself. 



CXXXIII.— THE ALISMA FAMILY. Alismucew. 



Aquatic and marsh plants, usually very elegant in appearance, the 

 foliage and flowers generally rising to a considerable height above the 

 surface of the water, and distinguished from all the preceding families 

 by their free and usually numerous ovaries, without any tendency to 

 unite. The stamens are hypogynous, and in combination with the 

 other chai-acter, place the family in exactly the same relation to 

 Endogcns in general, that the Ranimculacea; hold towards Exogens. 

 The resemblance extends to the ripe fruit, some having many-seeded 

 follicles ; and others small, dry, and one-seeded achcnia. The sepals 

 arc usually green ; the petals of the ordinary texture ; both parts 

 trimcroiis, and the stamens usually numerous, though in a few cases 

 only nine or six. The leaves are wholly radical ; the flowers some- 

 times truly unisexual. About fifty species arc known, natives of most 

 of the northern and middle parts of the world. Nine grow wild in 

 England, five of them occurring near Manchester. 



