TIL 



OR, BOTANICAL DICTIONARY. 



TIL 



677 



1. Tillandsia Utriculata; Bottle Tillandsia, or Wild Pine. 

 culm panicled. Many brown fibrils from the roots encom- 

 pass the arms, or take firm hold on the bark of the trunk of 

 trees; not like Mistletoe, entering- the bark or wood to suck 

 nourishment, but only weaving and matting themselves among 

 one another, and thereby making to the plant a strong and 

 firm foundation, whence rise several leaves on every side, 

 like those of Aloes or Ananas ; hence it is called Wild Pine. 

 These leaves are folded or inclosed one within another, each 

 three feet and a half long, and three inches broad at the base, 

 but ending in a point, having a very hollow or concave inward 

 side, and a round or convex outside, forming a basin or cis- 

 tern containing about a quart of water, which in the rainy 

 season falls upon the upper parts of the spreading leaves, 

 and, being conveyed down them by channels, lodges in the 

 bottom as in a bottle ; for the leaves, having swelled out at 

 the base, bend inwards close to the stalk, thus hindering the 

 evaporation of the water by the heat of the sun. From the 

 midst of the leaves rises a smooth, round, straight, green 

 stalk, three or four feet high, having many white branches, 

 and, when wounded, yielding a clear white mucilaginous 

 gum. The flowers come out here and thereon the branches: 

 the corolla is of a yellowish-white or herbaceous colour; and 

 the calix is made up of three green viscid leaves with purple 

 edges: capsule greenish -brown, having under it three short 

 capsular leaves, and within several long pappose seeds, which 

 are oblong, pyramidal, very small, and have a very soft down 

 as long as the capsule itself. By this down the seed is not 

 only carried with the wind, but adheres also to the bark of 

 trees, where, as soon as it sprouts, although it be on the 

 under part of the bough, it rises perpendicularly; for if it 

 had any other position, the cistern could not hold the water 

 which is necessary for the life and nourishment of this very 

 curious plant, into which, Dampier says, he many times stuck 

 his knife, and let out the water into his hat, to his great relief. 

 In the mountainous as well as dry low woods of the Ame- 

 rican continent, and its adjacent islands, this singular vege- 

 table reservoir is very useful to men, birds, and insects, par- 

 ticularly the two latter, which frequent these plants in great 

 numbers. Native of South America; found also every where 

 in the woods of Jamaica, especially upon decaying trees, which 

 it in time dissolves. 



2. Tillandsia Serrata; Serrate-leaved Tillandsia. Leaves 

 flat, serrate, spiny above; spike compound; bractes with spi- 

 nous teeth. Brown call this the Largest Tillandsia, or Wild 

 Pine, with a variegated flower-spike. Native of Jamaica. 



3. Tillandsia Lingulata; Tongue-leaved Tillandsia. Leaves 

 lanceolate, tongue-shaped, quite entire, ventricose at the base ; 

 flowers yellow, inodorous, three inches long. It grows on 

 large trees, to which it fastens itself by many long dark brown 

 threads, making altogether an oblong root. Native of South 

 America, Jamaica, and Martinico, where it is called Wood 

 Pine Apple. 



4. Tillandsia Tenuifolia; Fine-leaved Tillandsia. Spikes 

 alternate, imbricate ; flowers distich ; leaves linear, filiform, 

 erect, bristle-shaped at the tip. Stem a foot high, simple, 

 sheathed, leafy ; petals blue. Native of South America and 

 the Antilles; found on trees. 



5. Tillandsia Flexuosa; Flex nose- spiked Tillandsia. Spikes 

 loose, flexuose; flowers distich, somewhat remote; leaves lan- 

 ceolate-linear, reclined. Stem subdivided at the top; two or 

 three feet high; roots filiform, long, rigid; petals three, 

 linear, longer than the calix, turned back at the tip, scarlet 

 or blue. Found upon the branches of old trees, near the 

 coast of Jamaica, and in the neighbourhood of Carthagena 

 in New Spain. 



6. Tillandsia Setacea; Bristle-leaved Tillandsia. Spike 

 simple ; spathes distich, imbricate ; leaves linear, filiform, 

 reclined, smooth. Stem a foot high and more, round, almost 

 upright, covered from the root up to the spike with alternate 

 subimbricate sheaths, broad, ovate at the base, and at the 

 end attenuated into linear setaceous leaves. Native of Ja- 

 maica ; found there upon trees. 



7. Tillandsia Paniculata; Panicled Tillandsia. Leaves ra- 

 dical, very short; culm almost naked; branches subdivided, 

 ascending. Native of South America and Jamaica, called 

 the Loose-headed Tillandsia, or Wild Pine. 



8. Tillandsia Fasciculata ; Bundled Tillandsia. Spikes 

 lateral, distich, imbricate ; leaves lanceolate, subulate, erect, 

 strict. Roots filiform, rigid ; stem simple, from one to two 

 feet high, leafy; flowers solitary, sessile between the spathes. 

 Native of Jamaica, on trees near the coast. 



9. Tillandsia Nutans; Nodding Tillandsia. Spikes sub- 

 divided, nodding ; flowers distinct, ovate ; leaves ovate-lan- 

 ceolate, membranaceous ; stem almost naked. Plant from 

 one to two feet high; calix three-leaved; leaflets ovate, lanceo- 

 late ; petals three, ovate-lanceolate, erect, shrivelling, white. 

 Native of Jamaica, on trees in the mountains. 



10. Tillandsia Polystachya; Many-spiked Tillandsia. 

 Culm with imbricate lateral spikes. Native of South Ame- 

 rica. 



11. Tillandsia Monostachya ; One-spiked Tillandsia. 

 Leaves linear, channelled, reclined ; culm simple, imbricate ; 

 spike simple. Native of South America and Jamaica. 



12. Tillandsia Pruinosa; Frosty Tillandsia. Spike simple; 

 spathe imbricate ; leaves lanceolate linear, reclined, these 

 and the spathes tomentose with little scales. Plant a foot 

 or more high, simple, leafy; rootlets filiform, simple, rigid, 

 curled ; corolla blue. Native of Jamaica and Brazil, where 

 it is found on old boughs of trees. 



13. Tillandsia Canescens; Hoary Tillandsia. Spikes sub- 

 tern ; leaves linear, erect, equalling the stem, hoary. Plant 

 about a foot high ; petals long, red. Native of Jamaica, on. 

 trees near the coast. 



14. Tillandsia Angustifolia; Narrow-leaved Tillandsia. 

 Spikes in bundles; leaves linear-lanceolate, suberect, smooth, 

 surpassing the stem. Stem two feet high, almost upright, 

 simple, sheathed, leafy. Native of Jamaica and Hispaniola, 

 on the trunks and branches of trees. 



15. Tillandsia Recurvata; Recurvate-leaved Tillandsia. 

 Leaves awl-shaped, rugged, reclined ; culms one-flowered ; 

 glume two-flowered. Roots filiform, clustered, whitish ; stums 

 aggregate, simple, or leaves constituting the stem sheathing 

 at the base, whence the plant is in fact stemless. Native of 

 Jamaica, &c. where it is found on old rotten trees. " 



16. Tillandsia Usneoides ; Mossy Tillandsia. Filiform, 

 branched, intorted, rugged. Stems the size of a thread, the 

 skin whitish, as if covered with hoar-frost, within tough and 

 black like horse-hair. Many of these stick together on the 

 branches of the Ebony, or other trees, superficially by the 

 middle, and send down on each side some of the same stems, 

 very often a yard long, hanging on both sides, curled or 

 turning and winding one within another, and resembling an 

 old man's beard, as it is commonly named in Jamaica, where 

 it is found upon the trees, but does not grow so common nor 

 so luxuriantly as it does in the more northern provinces of 

 the main continent, where it is said to overrun whole forests. 

 It is frequently imported to Jamaica from North America, 

 for the use of sadlers and coach-makers, who use it to stuff 

 their pannels and cushions. In Louisiana and the neighbour- 

 ing settlements, this plant being carefully gathered and strip- 

 ped of the bark, is made into mattresses, cushions, pannels, 



