BROMELIA. 105 



This plant has no stem and the leaves are radical 

 and few. The stalk bearing the flowers is about two 

 feet long 1 , flexuous, and almost spiral, with alternate 

 scales without thorns. It blossoms in the months of 

 July, August, and September. The fruit is an oval 

 pointed berry, about the size of an olive. The leaves 

 are from three to six feet long and composed of two 

 segments, one exterior and convex, and the other 

 interior and concave. The former is more compact, 

 hard, and thick, than the latter ; between them are 

 numerous longitudinal fibres of the same length as 

 the leaves, and embedded in a juicy pulp. These 

 are separated from the rest of the leaf, either by 

 maceration and beating, or by clipping with a knife 

 the convex side at the bottom, and while holding it in 

 one hand pulling out the fibres with the other. This 

 is an operation which requires some strength and 

 dexterity, and is more laborious and expensive than 

 the first method, but the filaments thus obtained are 

 better and stronger. 



In Brazil, especially about Pernambuco, many 

 leagues of land are covered with this plant, and in 

 some places growing in such wild luxuriance as to 

 overspread the ground and render it impassable. 



Crauata de rede, or Bromelia sagenaria, another 

 native of Brazil, is a plant which resembles the fore- 

 going, in not having a stem and in having radical 

 leaves, but these are more numerous and sometimes 

 attain to a much greater length than those of the 

 last described plant. The stalk which bears the 

 flowers is a foot and a half long. It produces pur- 

 ple flowers which bloom in July and August, and 

 are followed by one pyramidal fruit composed of a 

 congeries of berries. The filaments of the leaves 

 vary in length from three to eight feet, according to 

 the relative fertility of the land. The shortest fibres 

 are finer and softer than the longest. 



