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in the tropics for food, under the name of yautias and taros. 

 Plants of the same family, too large for exhibition in this 

 house, may be found in house No. 4. This house is oc- 

 cupied also by plants of the pineapple family, these being 

 on the side benches. These are mostly plants which live 

 on the trunks and branches of trees in tropical forests, and 

 are therefore called epiphytes, signifying plants growing 

 upon other plants; many of them are exceedingly beautiful 

 in foliage and in flower; the so-called Florida moss, or 

 Spanish moss, clothes the trees of the live-oaks in the 

 southern Atlantic States, and is not a moss at all, but a 

 plant bearing small flowers which show its relationship 

 to others of this family. The pineapple itself, doubtless 

 the most familiar member of this group, has been culti- 

 vated 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, Bromelia 

 Pinguin is widely utilized as a hedge plant in the West 

 Indies. Other members of this family will be found at 

 range 2. 



House No. 11. Here are brought together many kinds of 

 tropical plants belonging to the banana, ginger and canna 

 families. There is also here, on a corner bench, a collection 

 of pineapple plants, some of them with beautiful variegated 

 foliage. 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 species whose fruit is not edible, but whose 

 interest lies in their decorative leaves and flowers. The 



