NO. I BROMELIACEAE OF BRAZIL — SMITH 9 



It can be argued that structurally Encholirium and Cottendorfia 

 are as primitive as Puya, but they are now widely separated from it 

 geographically and the distribution of the other genera indicates an 

 origin from an ancestral type close to Puya. Encholirium and Cotten- 

 dorfia may have entered Brazil on the divide between the Amazon 

 and Paraguay basins, but so long ago that no good evidence remains. 

 The advanced genera, Dyckia and Deiiterocohnia, however, clearly 

 indicate this origin from western Bolivia. The other advanced genera, 

 Navia and Brocchinia, barely cross the northern boundary of Brazil. 

 Navia, at first considered primitive on account of its naked seeds, is 

 now evidently advanced as occasional vestiges of wing prove this 

 condition to be the result of reduction. 



The subfamily Tillandsioideae shows evidences of at least three 

 routes of invasion and also a strong reverse movement in the case 

 of Vriesia, its largest genus in Brazil. Tillandsia, the most primitive 

 genus of the subfamily, shows the height of land as the most probable 

 route for its most primitive subgenus, Allardtia, as well as for Pseudo- 

 Catopsis and Phytarrhisa. Anoplophytum very likely evolved in 

 Brazil and spread westward like the genus Vriesia. The subgenus 

 Diaphoranthema of Tillandsia seems to have invaded from the south, 

 while a few species of the subgenus Tillandsia (formerly Platy- 

 stachys) and of the genus Cat op sis have obviously moved down the 

 coast from the West Indies. 



Judged from the extreme concentration of species and genera in 

 eastern Brazil, the subfamily Bromelioideae must have evolved there. 

 Such genera as Cryptanthus and Nidulariuin are endemic in the area, 

 and such large and widespread genera as Aechmea and Billhergia 

 have species ranges that almost seem to explode from that point. 



ECONOMIC ASPECTS 



The pineapple, Ananas comosus, is the one bromeliad of outstand- 

 ing economic importance. It probably evolved in interior Brazil (see 

 Baker & Colhns in American Journal of Botany 26:697), but like 

 so many other economic species it has found its greatest development 

 far from its homeland. In fact the leading center of research on the 

 pineapple is in Hawaii, as might be expected in connection with some 

 three-quarters of the world's export trade in this fruit. In Brazil, 

 although it does not figure as an export, the pineapple is widely 

 grown and appreciated. It also produces a superior fiber but this 

 has not found much use because of the difficulties of preparation. 



