PINE-APPLE FAMILY. 329 



C. discolor, grows 6° -10° high, with broad purple-tinged very large 

 leaves, and crimson or red-purple flowers. 



C gl^uca, especially its var. Ajuskt, 8° -13° high, with its glaucous 

 pale taper-pointed leaves, and yellow or red flowers 4' long. 



C. flaccida, wild in swamps from South Carolina S. : 2° - 4° high, with 

 ovate-lanceolate pointed leaves, and yellow flowers 3'-r4' long; all the inner 

 divisions obovate and wavy, lax, the 3 outer or calyx reflexed. 



III. BANANA FAMILY propek. Not aromatic or pungent. 

 Stamens 5 with 2-celIed anthers, and an abortive naked filament. 



Strelltzia Beglnse, a large stemless conservatory plant, from the Cape 

 of Good Hope, winter-flowering, with 2-ranked root-leaves, their long rigid 

 petioles bearing an ovate-oblong thick blade ; scape bearing at apex an oblique 

 or horizontal and rigid conduplicate spatlie, from which several large and 

 strange-looking blossoms appear in succession ; the 3 outer divisions of the peri- 

 anth 3' - 4' long, orange-yellow, one of them conduplicate and taper-pointed, and 

 somewhat like the two larger of the bright blue inner set, or true petals, which 

 are united and cover the stamens, the other petal inconspicuous. 



Mtisa sapi^utum. Banana; cult, for foliage and for the well-known 

 fruit ; the enwrapping bases of the huge leaves forming a sort of tree-like suc- 

 culent stem, 10° -20° high ; the flower-stalk rising through the centre, and de- 

 veloping a drooping spike, the flowers clustered in the axil of its purplish 

 bracts; perianth of 2 concave or convolute divisions or lips, the lower 3-5- 

 lobed at the apex aiid enclosing the much smaller upper one ; berry oblong, by 

 long cultivation (from offshoots) seedless. (Lessons, p. 19, fig. 47.) 



M. Cavendishii. A dwarf variety, flowering at a few feet in height, is 

 the more manageable one, principally cultivated for fruiting. 



119. BROMELIACE^, PINE-APPLE FAMILY. 



Tropical or subtropical plants, the greater part epiphytes, with 

 dry or fleshy, mostly, rigid, smooth or scurfy leaves, often prickly 

 edged, and perfect flowers with 6 stamens, — represented by several 

 species of Tilland.~ia in Florida, a small one further north, and sev- 

 eral of various genera in choice conservatories, not here noticed. 



Anan^ssa satlva, Pine-Apple ; cult, for its fruit, the flowers abortive, 

 and sometimes for foliage, especially a striped-leaved variety. 



Till^ndsia usneoides, the Long Moss or Black Moss (so called), 

 hanging from trees in the low country from the Dismal Swamp S. : gray- 

 scurfy, with thread-shaped branching stems, linear-awl-shaped recurved leaves, 

 and small sessile green flowers ; the ovary free, forming a narrow 3-valved pod, 

 filled with club-shaped hairy-stalked seeds : fl. summer. 



120. AMARYLLIDACE.aS, AMARYLLIS FAMILY. 



Chiefly perennial herbs, with leaves and scape from a bulb, corm, 

 (fee, the leaves nerved from the base, and rarely with any distinction 

 of blade and petiole ; the perianth regular or but moderately 

 irregular and colored, its tube adherent to the surface of the 3-celled 

 ovary ; and 6 stamens with jrood anthers. Bulbs acrid, some of 

 them poisonous. To. this family belong many of the choicer bulbs 

 of house-culture, only the commonest here noticed. 



§ 1. Scape and linear hairy leaves from a Utile solid bulb or corm. 

 1, IIYPOXYS. Perianth 6-parted nearly to the ovary, spreading, greenish out- 

 side, yellow within, persistent and withering on the pod. 



