374 



BROMELIACEAE. 



Family 14. BROMELIACEAE J. St. Hil. Expos. Fain, i: 122. 1805. 



PINE-APPLE FAMILY. 



Epiphytic herbs (some tropical species terrestrial), mostly scurfy, with 

 elongated entire or spinulose-serrate leaves. Flowers spiked, panicled, or soli- 

 tary, regular and perfect, usually conspicuously bracted. Perianth of 3 thin 

 distinct or somewhat united sepals, and 3 clawed distinct or united petals. 

 Stamens 6, usualh" inserted on the base of the corolla. Ovary inferior or 

 superior, 3-celled; ovules numerous in each cell, anatropous; style short or 

 elongated; stigmas 3. Capsule 3-valved in our species. Seeds numerous, the 

 testa membranous. Embryo small, situated at the base of the copious endosperm. 

 About 35 genera and 900 species, all natives of tropical and subtropical America. 



i. TILLANDSIA L. Sp. PL 286. 1753. 



Epiphytic plants of various habit, with narrow entire leaves and white, yellow or purple 

 flowers. Sepals distinct and separate or very nearly so. Petals distinct. Stamens hypogy- 

 nous or the three inner ones inserted on the bases of the petals; filaments filiform; anthers 

 linear or linear-oblong. Ovary superior; style subulate; stigmas short. Capsule septicidally 

 3-valved. Seeds erect, narrow, supported on a long funiculus which splits up into fine threads. 

 [Dedicated to Elias Tillands, Swedish (?) botanist of the seventeenth century.] 



About 350 species, natives of warm and tropical America. Besides the following some 9 others 

 occur in the southern United States. 



i. Tillandsia usneoides L/. Long 

 Moss. Florida Moss. (Fig. 904.) 



Renealmia usneoides L. Sp. PI. 287. 1753. 

 Tillandsia usneoides I,. Sp. PI. Ed. 2, 411. 1762. 



Stems very slender, thread-like, flexuous, 

 hanging clustered in festoons from the branches 

 of trees, 3-2o long, gray and, like the filiform 

 leaves, densely silvery-scurfy all over. Leaves 

 scattered, i / -3 / long, scarcely y>" thick, their 

 bases somewhat dilated; flowers sessile and 

 solitary or rarely 2 together in the axils of the 

 leaves; sepals about 3 // long, pale green; petals 

 yellow, the blade about i" long; stamens about 

 as long as the calyx; capsule linear, 9"- 15" 

 long, at length splitting into 3 linear valves. 



Eastern Virginia to Florida, west to Texas and 

 Mexico. Very widely distributed in tropical 

 America. 



Family 15. COMMELINACEAE Reichenb. Consp. 57. 

 SPIDKRWORT FAMILY. 



1828. 



Perennial or annual leaf}- herbs with regular or irregular perfect and often 

 showy flowers in cymes, commonly subtended by spathe-like or leafy bracts. 

 Perianth of 2 series; a calyx of mostly 3 persistent sepals, and a corolla of 

 mostly 3 membranous and deciduous or fugacious petals. Stamens mostly 6, 

 hypogynous, rarely fewer, all similar and perfect or 2 or 3 of them different 

 from the others and sterile; filaments filiform or somewhat flattened; antlu-rs 

 2-celled, mostly longitudinally dehiscent. Ovary superior, sessile or very 

 nearly so, 2-3-celled; ovules i or several in each cell, anatropous or half ana- 

 tropous; style simple; stigmas terminal, entire or obscurely 2-3-lobed. Seeds 

 solitary or several in each cell of the capsule. Capsule 2-3-celled, loculicidally 

 2-3-valved. Embryo small. Endosperm copious. 



About 25 genera and 350 species, mostly natives of tropical regions, a few in the temperate / 



IVrftct stanu-ns 3, rarely 2; petals unequal; bracts spathe-like. i. Conimelina. 



Perfect stamens 6, rarely 5; petals all alike; bracts leafy. 2. Tradescanlia . 



