PINE-APPLE FAMILY. 



329 



C. discolor, grows 60-10° high, with broad purple-tinged very large 

 leaves, and crimson or red-purple flowers. 



C. glkuca, especially its var. Ann.*!, 8° -13° high, lyith its glaucous 

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



C. fl^CCida, wild in swamps frora South Carolina S. : 2° -4° high, with 

 ovate-lanceolate pointed leaves, and yellow flowers 3' -4' long; all the inner 

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



III. BANANA FAMILY proper. Not aromatic or pungent 

 Stamens a with 2-celled anthers, and an abortive naked filament. 



Strelitzia 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 thicli blade ; scape bearing at apex an oblique 

 or horizontal and rigid conduplicate spathe, 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^ntuin, 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 - h- 

 lobed at tlie apex and 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.ai, 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, Pii/fe-AppLE ; cult, for its fruit, the flowers abortive, 

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



Tillandsia usneoides, tlie Long Moss or Black Moss (so called), 

 hanging from trees ^n 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. AMAE,YLLrDACE.ffi, AMARYLLIS FAMILY. 



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

 &c., 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 good 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 andUnear hairy leaves from a little solid bulb or corm. 

 1. IIYPOXYS. Perianth B-jjarted nearly to the ovary, spreading, greenish ont^ 

 £idc, 3-ellow within, persistent and withering on the pod. 

 S & F— 2.5 



