192 POPULAR GEOGRAPHY OF PLANTS. 



melia Ananas) will assist us in forming some idea, espe- 

 cially aids in producing the rank luxuriance which we see 

 within the tropics. The whole of this family have long, 

 narrow leaves, of a mealy, bluish-green ; and in the splen- 

 dour of their flowers they surpass most of the tropical plants. 

 Large ears or spikes of flowers of the most varied colours 

 rise from the centre of the mass of leaves. A great num- 

 ber of them are stemless ; but the Pine-apple in its native 

 countries grows to the height of four or five feet. 



It must particularly be remembered too, what a very 

 marked character is given to these regions by the forests of 

 Tree Grasses. We have only to look at a field of grass to 

 see how entirely it is the nature of grasses to grow thickly 

 together in great masses, and then to reflect that the same 

 social disposition distinguishes the whole family ; we have 

 only to substitute a Bamboo of some thirty or forty feet 

 high for the little Grasses which compose our hay-meadows, 

 and in the place of a meadow to imagine a vast tract of 

 land covered with these Bamboos growing so closely toge- 

 ther as to be impenetrable, and we know what a Bamboo- 

 forest is like, the long narrow leaves all hanging from 

 the pendent branches, which spring from the straight green 

 stem, in tangled untidy-looking confusion. 



