BKOMELIACE^E. (PINE-APPLE FAMILY.) 497 



3. ALETRIS, L. STAR-GRASS. 



Perianth tubular, scurfy and viscid without, smooth within, 6-cleft, the 

 tube adnate to the base of the ovary. Stamens 6, very short, included : an- 

 thers sagittate. Style subulate, erect, persistent, and separable : stigmas 3. 

 Capsule ovate, coriaceous. Seeds ovate, ribbed, fixed at the base. Peren- 

 nial herbs, with slender scape-like linear-bracted stems, bearing at the base a 

 cluster of flat spreading leaves, and at the summit numerous small white or 

 yellow flowers in a spiked raceme. 



1. A. farinosa, L. Leaves lanceolate ; spike short (3'- 12'), rigid; peri- 

 anth white or yellow, cylindrical ; style slender; capsule ovate-lanceolate. - 

 Low ground. May -June. Scape 2 -3 high. Leaves 3' -6' long. Peri- 

 anth 4" long. 



2. A. aurea, Walt. Leaves ovate-lanceolate; spike elongated (l-2), 

 slender ; perianth white or yellow, globose-ovate ; style short ; capsule ovate. 

 Low sandy soil. May -June. Scape 2 -3 high. Leaves 2' -4' long. 

 Perianth 2" -3" long. 



ORDER 148. BROMELIACE^E. (PINE-APPLE FAMILY.) 



Chiefly scurfy epiphytes, with fibrous roots, rigid leaves, and regu- 

 lar conspicuously bracted mostly spiked flowers. Perianth free, or 

 more or less adnate to the 3-celled ovary, 6-parted, imbricated, the 

 three outer divisions calyx-like. Stamens 6: anthers 2-celled, in- 

 trorse. Ovules numerous, anatropous, erect or pendulous. Placentae 

 central. Style single : stigmas 3. Fruit berry-like, or 3-celled, 3- 

 valved capsule. Seeds stalked. Embryo small, at the base of copious 

 mealy albumen. 



1. TILLANDSIA, L. LONG Moss, AIR PLANT. 



Sepals rigid. Petals imbricated and tube-like below, spreading above. 

 Stamens filiform, hypogynous. Ovary free. Style slender. Capsule linear 

 or linear-oblong, cartilaginous, septicidally 3-valved, each valve separating 

 into 2 plates. Seeds erect, club-shaped, pointed, raised on a long and hairy 

 stalk. Radical leaves mostly crowded, imbricated. Petals fugacious. 



* Stem rigid, erect : flowers spiked. 



-t Flowers scattered : spikes flexuous. 



1. T. utriculata, Leconte. Leaves scurfy and glaucous, subulate and 

 recurved at the summit, very much dilated, concave and imbricated at the 

 base, shorter than the rigid mostly branching stem ; the uppermost small and 

 sheathing ; sepals oblong-linear, obtuse, longer than the bracts, much shorter 

 than the capsule ; petals white, twice as long as the sepals ; stamens exserted. 



- South Florida. June - July. Stem 2 - 3 high. 



2. T. flexuosa, Swartz Scurfy M i - 2 high) ; leaves rigid (1 long), 

 verv broad aud spirally imbricated below the middle, and crossed with lines 



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