The Pine- Apple. 239 



juicy so-called "apple." In the wild state, seeds are pro- 

 duced, but under cultivation, owing, it would appear, to 

 the yet intenser degree of succulence then induced, none 

 of the ovules ripen. The spiral arrangement of the bracts, 

 with their flowers, is almost exactly similar to that of the 

 scales of a fir-cone; spiral flower-girdles, not unlike, occur 

 also in various Australian Myrtacese, but in the latter 

 everything remains permanently dry, and there is no 

 consolidation. The vegetative part of the plant consists 

 of a great tuft of radical leaves, in substance thick and 

 leathery, two or three feet long, and two or three inches 

 broad, edged with short close prickles, sharply pointed, 

 and in colour somewhat glaucous. The flower-stem 

 proceeds from the centre of the tuft, and after developing 

 its spiral girdle of flowers, goes on growing vertically, so 

 as to produce the elegant tuft or crown of smaller leaves 

 upon the summit of the fruit. The crown when wrenched 

 off, and planted in the ground, takes root like the leafy 

 extremities of shoots called "cuttings." Propagation 

 may be effected, and very generally is, by means of it, 

 though more extensively by means of the suckers which 

 emerge from near the base of the plant, these correspond- 

 ing, in a certain degree, with the little round progeny that 

 creep out from the rosette of the houseleek. It happens 

 sometimes that two crowns are produced j also that the 

 suckers produce fruit while still attached to the parent ; 

 and far more curiously that instead of flowers, followed by 

 " pips," there is an out-growth of a crowd of miniature 

 suckers. A very beautiful variety with variegated leaves 



