BROMELIA ANANAS-PINE APPLE, 



CLASS, HEXANDRIA ; ORDER, MONOGYNIA. 

 NATURAL ORDER, BROMELIACE^E. 



GEN. CHAR. Calyx, tripid. Petals, three, a honey bearing 

 scale at the base of each petal. Berry, three celled. SPEC. CHAR. 

 Leaves, fringed with spines, mucronate. Spike comose. 



This is the type of a natural order of American plants chiefly 

 belonging to tropical regions. The leaves are sheathing, usually 

 springing from the root. A perianth of three sepals and three 

 petals, and six stamens, varying in point of insertion. Germen 

 simple, with one style, and a three cleft stigma. Three celled and 

 three valved fruit; the seeds with mealy albumen. 



Linnaeus named this genus after a countryman of his, Olaus 

 Bromel, the author of several botanical works. It is a native of 

 Brazil, Peru, and Mexico ; and is now universally diffused over 

 the civilized world. It flourishes in Europe, as far north as Naples, 

 when unprotected, and in America in the Bermudas. Loudon 

 considers it a much more hardy plant than we generally imagine, 

 and says, it will bear degrees of heat and cold which would 

 destroy the foliage of both the vine and grape in a state of 

 vegetation. We are told that the Peruvians, among whom the 

 Europeans first found it, called it NANAS, and from hence was 

 derived the European name Ananas. There are upwards of twenty 

 species of this tree, and a great number of varieties. 



