BEOMELIACEAE. 63 



Order 8. XYRIDALES. 



Monoeotyledonous herbs, mostly with narrow leaves. Flowers usually 

 complete, their parts mostly in 3's or 6's. Corolla regular or nearly so 

 (except in Commelina). Ovary compound, superior. Endosperm of the 

 seed mealy. 



Epiphytic plants with scurfy leaves. Fam. 1. Bkomeliaceae. 



Terrestrial plants, their leaves not scurfy. Fam. 2. COMMELixACEiE. 



Family 1. BEOMELIACEAE J. St. 511. 



Pine-Apple Faiiilt. 



Epiphytic herbs (some tropical species terrestrial), mostly scurfy, with 

 elongated, entire or spinulose-serrate leaves. Flowers spiked, panicled, 

 or solitary, regular and perfect, usually conspicuously bracted. Perianth 

 of 3 thin distinct or somewhat united sepals, and 3 clawed distinct or 

 united petals. Stamens 6, usually inserted on the base of the corolla. 

 Ovary inferior or superior, 3-celled; ovules numerous in each cavity, 

 anatropous; style short or elongated; stigmas 3. Capsule 3-valved in 

 our species. Seeds niunerous, the testa membranous. Embryo small, 

 situated at the base of the copious endosperm. About 45 genera and 900 

 species, all natives of tropical and subtropical America. 



Style filiform. _ ^ 



Stems thread-like, pendent; flowers solitary, rarely 2. 1. Denaropogon. 



Stems not thread-like, rigid; flowers splcate. 2. Tillandsia. 



Style short or none. 3. Catopsis. 



1. DENDEOPOGON Kaf. Neog. 3. 1825. 



Pendulous, mueh-branehed plants, with thread-like stems and branches, 

 very narrow, entire leaves and yeUow or greenish flowers. Sepals distinct 

 OT very nearly so. Petals distinct. Stamens long, the 3 inner ones borne on 

 the bases of the petals; filaments filiform; anthers linear. Ovary superior; 

 style columnar; stigmas short. Capsule septicidally 3-valved. Seeds erect, 

 narrow, supported on a long funiculus which splits into fine threads. [Greek, 

 tree-beard.] About 3 species, the following typical. 



1. Dendropogon usneoides (L.) Baf. PI. Tell 4: 25. 1838. 



Benedlmia usneoides L. Sp. PI. 287. 1753. 

 Tillandsia usneoides Ii. Sp. PI. ed. 2, 411. 1762. 



Stems flexuous, hanging clustered in festoons from the branches of trees, 

 1-8 m. long, gray and, like the filiform leaves, densely silvery-scurfy all over. 

 Leaves scattered, 2-8 em. long, scarcely 1 mm. thick, their bases somewhat 

 dilated; flowers sessile and solitary or rarely 2 together in the axils of the 

 leaves; sepals about 6 mm. long, pale green; petals yellow; stamens about as 

 long as the calyx ; capsule linear, 2-3 cm. long, at length splitting into 3 linear 

 valves. 



Hanging from shrubs and trees. New Providence, Cat Island, Inagua : — Virginia 

 to Florida and Texas ; West Indies and continental America south to Paraguay. 

 Spanish Moss. Old Man's Beard. 



