BROMELIACEAE

This article appears in Volume V04, Page 632 of the Encyclopedia Britannica.

Encyclopedia Britannica - Main :: BRI-BUN

BROMELIACEAE , in botany, a natural order of Monocotyledons, confined to tropical and sub-tropical America. It includes the pine-apple (fig. I) and the so-called Spanish

moss

MOSS

(fig.. 2); a rootless. plant, which hangs in long grey lichen-like festoons from the branches of trees, a native of

Mexico

and the southern United States," the water required for food is absorbed from the moisture in the air by peculiar hairs which cover the
FiG.I.Fruit of the pine-apple (Ananas sativa), consisting of numerous

flowers

FLOWERS, ARTIFICIAL

and bracts united together so as to form a collective or anthocarpous
fruit. The crown of (From The Botanical Magazine, by permission of Lovell,
the pine-apple, c, con- Reeve & Co.)
sists of a

series

SERIES (a Latin word from serere, to join)

of FIG. 2.Tillandsia usneoides, Spanish empty bracts pro-

moss

MOSS

, 'slightly reduced. 1, Small branch longed beyond the with flower; 2, flower cut vertically; 3,
fruit. , . section of 'seed of Bromelia
surface of the shoots. The plants are generally herbs with a much shortened

stem

STEM (O. Eng. staefn, stemn, cf. Du. stain, Ger. Stamm, &c., probably related to " staff ")

bearing a rosette of leaves and a spike or panicle of

flowers

FLOWERS, ARTIFICIAL

. They are eminently dry-country plants (xerophytes) ; the narrow leaves are protected from loss of water by a thick cuticle, and have a well-developed sheath which embraces the

stem

STEM (O. Eng. staefn, stemn, cf. Du. stain, Ger. Stamm, &c., probably related to " staff ")

and forms, with the sheaths of the other leaves of the rosette, a basin in which water collects, with fragments of rotting leaves and the like. Peculiar hairs are developed on the inner surface of the sheath by which the water and dissolved substances are absorbed, thus helping to feed the plant. The

leaf

LEAF (O. Eng. leaf, cf. Dutch loof, Ger. Laub, Swed. lof, &c.; possibly to be referred to the root seen in Gr. Ma-eta, to peel, strip)

-margins are often spiny, and the

leaf

LEAF (O. Eng. leaf, cf. Dutch loof, Ger. Laub, Swed. lof, &c.; possibly to be referred to the root seen in Gr. Ma-eta, to peel, strip)

-spines of Puya chilensis are used by the natives as fish-hooks. Several species are grown as hot-

house

HOUSE
HOUSE (O. Eng. hiss, a word common to Teutonic languages, cf. Dut. huis, Ger. Haus; in
Gothic
- GOTHIC
it is only found in gudhiss, a temple; it may be ultimately connected with the root of " hide," conceal)

plants for the

bright

BRIGHT, JOHN (1811-188g)
BRIGHT, SIR CHARLES TILSTON

colour of their flowers or ' flower-bracts, e.g. species of Tillandsia, Billbergia, Aechmea and others. '

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