Plants Collected in Paraguay. 235 



bracts of the red-flowered form often broadly obtuse at the apex 

 and covered with a white mealy or waxy substance, peculiarities 

 which I never saw in the other. Still these differences may not 

 hold in other regions. The plants grow both in wet grounds and 

 on dry banks. 



BROMELIACE^. 



Named by J. G. Baker. 



Bromelia Pinguin, L., Sp. PL, 285. 



Asuncion (341). December. 



This plant has an immense rosette of numerous spine-tipped 

 leaves pointing in all directions, and bristling like so many lances, 

 some of them 1 J m. in length, beset down the sides with upwardly 

 hooked spines, forming a barrier which neither man nor beast 

 attempts to break through. The central part of this rosette is of a 

 deep scarlet color, and can be seen from a long distance. Flowers 

 purplish or bluish, closely arranged about a fleshy caudex, 10-12 

 cm. thick and 15-20 cm. high. Fruit a succulent, edible berry, 3 or 

 4 cm. long and 2 or 3 cm. in width, looking somewhat like a fig. 

 The plant is known under the native name Garaguata, and is often 

 called the wild pine-apple. It is a noted object in Paraguay, as the 

 leaves have been used time out of mind by the natives for making 

 fishing-nets and lines, and a coarse, strong cloth is woven out of the 

 fibres. It has also been used in recent years in the manufacture of 

 paper. The plants often cover the ground for acres. 



Ananas sativus^ Lindl., var. microcephalus, Baker, Handb. Bromel., 

 23. 



Trinidad (831) ; Pilcomayo River (1555). November-January. 

 = Balansa 609. 



The basal rosette very similar to that of no. 341, but the leaves 

 are fewer in number, and none of them scarlet colored as in that, 

 or so long. Flowers on a thick central stem, which is scurfy dotted 

 below, 3-6 dm. high, bearing smaller leaves like those of the rosette. 

 Flowers in a thick oval head 8-10 cm. long, each subtended by a 

 pink-colored, spine-edged bract. Sepals reddish ; petals purplish. 

 The fruit is harsh and unpalatable. This without much doubt is 

 the original wild form of the cultivated pine-apple. The leaves are 

 used like those of no. 341 in textile manufactures. Found in similar 

 situations as that, but rarer. 



