474 
THE PRINCIPLES OF BOTANY. 
of these six natural orders can only be adequately repre- 
sented in this place by a series of diagrams, but it will be 
even better if the student can examine a few living represen- 
tatives. 
Viewing the alliance as a whole, it may be stated that 
it contains many handsome aud useful plants. Many of 
them have acrid juices, which in some species almost, if not 
quite, render them poisonous ; at the same time both fruits 
and roots of some of the genera are used as food, and one of 
the most delicious of fruits, when properly grown, will be 
found in the first order. 
Bromeliacece . — The most important representative of this 
natural order will be found in the genus Ananas , pine-apple. 
Its fruit, as one of the grandest results of gardening skill, is 
well known. There are few feasts of importance at which the 
“ British pine” does not appear as one of the handsomest 
and most luscious of fruits, and though a native of the West 
Indies, it seems only to be grown in England to its highest 
perfection. The favour in which it is held, and the pains 
taken in its cultivation, may be gathered from the fact that 
in the ‘ Guide to the Orchard and Kitchen Garden/ by 
George Lindley, published in 1831, more than seventy varie- 
ties are tabulated, and they have been much increased since. 
Professor Lindley states that “in its wild state, however, and 
unripe, its fruit is excessively acid, burning the gums.” 
Some of this quality is found in too many of the West Indian 
pines, which are now so common as to be hawked about the 
streets. This acidity is probably due to the fact that, in order 
to their passage, they had been gathered before being fully 
ripe, otherwise many would decay. Even incipient decay 
shows that they are riper than their fellows ; in which state, 
that is, when the flaw is only slight, we recommend our 
friends to choose them. The leaves of the pine-apple may, 
doubtless, be employed in paper-making ; -even “ fine mus- 
lin,” according to Professor Lindley, “ has been manufac- 
tured from the fibres of the common pine-apple.” 
Passing over the next two natural orders for want of 
practical interest in their limited genera, we come next to 
The Amaryllids. — In these we have a large generic list 
represented by the beautiful genus narcissus, of our fields 
and gardens ; the still more showy amaryllis of the conserva- 
tory, and the grand agave, the A. Americana, American aloe, 
which is one of the noblest of horticultural favorites. 
In speaking of the distribution of members of the order, 
Professor Lindley says : 
“ A very few only are found in the north of Europe and 
