(192 ) 
in the tropics for food, under the name of yautias and taros. 
Plants of the same family, too large for exhibition in this 
house, may be found in house No. 4. This house is oc- 
cupied also by plants of the pineapple family, these being 
on the side benches. These are mostly plants which live 
on the trunks and branches of trees in tropical forests, and 
are therefore called epiphytes, signifying plants growing 
upon other plants; many of them are exceedingly beautiful 
in foliage and in flower; the so-called Florida moss, or 
Spanish moss, clothes the trees of the live-oaks in the 
southern Atlantic States, and is not a moss at all, but a 
plant bearing small flowers which show its relationship 
to others of this family. The pineapple itself, doubtless 
the most familiar member of this group, has been culti- 
vated in tropical regions for an indefinite period for fruit, 
and is not certainly known in the wild state; the pineapple 
fruit is the ripened bunch of flowers which forms at the 
top of the stem; the plant is propagated by cutting off the 
tuft of leaves, which is found on the top of the fruit, and 
by suckers which sprout from the side of the plant near the 
ground; it is an exception to the tree-loving habit of most of 
the family, in growing on the ground, and is cultivated in 
the Bahamas and on the Florida Keys, often in very rocky 
soil. One of the very spiny-leaved species, Bromelia 
Pinguin is widely utilized as a hedge plant in the West 
Indies. Other members of this family will be found at 
range 2. 
House No. rz. Here are brought together many kinds of 
tropical plants belonging to the banana, ginger and canna 
families. There is also here, on a corner bench, a collection 
of pineapple plants, some of them with beautiful variegated 
foliage. The collection of bananas and their relatives 
occupies the greater part of the space and one or more of 
the specimens is usually in fruit; the collection contains 
both the edible, commercial bananas and the plantains, 
and also several species whose fruit is not edible, but whose 
interest lies in their decorative leaves and flowers. The 
