14: PJSOSERPINA. 



lens of no great power, I find the velvet tc be composed 

 of small star-like groups of smooth, strong, oval leaves, 

 intensely green, and much like the young leaves of any 

 other plant, except in this ; they all have a long brown 

 spike, like a sting, at their ends. 



5. Fastening on that, I take the Flora Danica,* and 

 look through its plates of mosses, for 

 their leaves only ; and I find, first, that 

 this spike, or strong central rib, is 

 characteristic ; secondly, that the said 

 leaves are apt to be not only spiked, 

 but serrated, and otherwise angry-look- 

 ing at the points; thirdly, that they 



have a tendency to fold together in the 

 FIG. 1. 



centre (Fig. If); and at last, after an 



hour's work at them, it strikes me suddenly that they are 

 more like pineapple leaves than anything else. 



And it occurs to me, very unpleasantly, at the same 

 time, that I don't know what a pineapple is ! 



Stopping to ascertain that, I am told that a pineapple 

 belongs to the ' Bromeliace&a ' (can't stop to find out 

 what that means) nay, that of these plants " the pine- 

 apple is the representative " (Loudon) ; " their habit is 

 acid, their leaves rigid, and toothed with spines, their 



* Properly, Floras Danicse, but it is so tiresome to print the diph- 

 thongs that I shall always call it thus. It is a folio series, exquisitely 

 begun, a hundred years ago ; and not yet finished. 



f Magnified about seven times. See note at end of this chapter. 



