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most familiar member of this group, has been cultivated 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, Bromelta Pinguin, is widely utilized as 

 a hedge plant in the West Indies. Hanging from the rafters 

 on both sides of this house may be found baskets containing 

 the East Indian pitcher-plants, Nepenthes; these are mostly 

 vines, growing naturally on trees, their leaves curiously modi- 

 fied at the ends into hollow structures provided with lids and 

 technically known as pitchers, which are often wrongly re- 

 garded as the flowers ; these pitchers contain water and secrete 

 from their sides a glutinous liquid which digests insects that 

 fall or crawl into the pitchers; this form of nutriment is 

 apparently not necessary at all, however, to the growth of 

 the plants; the flowers are small but borne in large clusters 

 arising from the stems and may often be seen in this collection. 

 House No. ii. Here are brought together many kinds of 

 tropical plants belonging to the banana, ginger and canna 

 families. There are also here a few plants of the pineapple 

 family too tall to be shown on the benches in house No. 10. 

 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 spe- 

 cies whose fruit is not edible, but whose interest lies in their 

 decorative leaves and flowers. The stems and leaves of all 

 these plants contain some fiber, which is produced in enor- 

 mous quantities in the Philippine Islands from Musa textilis, 

 and is the well-known Manila hemp. The supply of fruit 

 for the United States comes mostly from Central America 



