Section 2d. With the flowers united by the receptacles or berries united in one.
Spec. Char. Leaves radical, ciliate serrated; the berries are united into one pyramidal fruit; the bracteæ long, imbricate, covering the fruit.
Nat. Char. No stem.
Leaves radical and many, (from 3 to 9 feet long) one inch and a half wide, channelled; the edges ciliate spiny, ash-coloured on the convex, and green on the concave surface.
Flowers, The stalk, a foot and a half long, with alternate leaves, the flowers of a bluish purple colour, with the receptacles united. Calyx monophyllous, with obtuse indentations, trifid, erect. Corolla tripetalous, tubular, erect, obtuse, blue, each petal has at the base nectariferous scales. Stamina consist of six filiform filaments, three alternate and three opposite, fixed to the receptacle; and of oblong, bilocular anthers. Pistil consists of one filiform style with a single stigma. Pericarp, a trilocular berry, united by the sides to the other berries, which altogether form one pyramidal fruit, covered, having long imbricate bracteæ. The seeds are of the size of a grain of maize, fasciated.
The plant is to be found upon the coast of Pernambuco, Paraiba, and Rio Grande, it does not extend into the interior more than ten or twelve leagues. It is commonly called crauatà de rede, or net crauatà, because the inhabitants of the parts in which it grows, make their fishing nets of its fibres. It blossoms in July and August.
This species of bromelia is new; the fruit of it is similar to that of the bromelia ananas, being however smaller; the berries are less juicy, and of a disagreeable taste; the bracteæ are three inches in length, erect, and placed one over the other after the manner of tiles, so as to cover all the superficies of the fruit. I took its specific name of Sagenaria, from the circumstance of its fibres being used by fishermen for making their nets.
The fibre of the plant varies in length from three to eight feet, according to the greater or less fertility of the land; in dry land it is short, fine, and soft; in good land, it is longer but likewise thicker and rough; the strength of it is great, the following fact proving that this is the case. Upon the wharf of the city of Paraiba, there is a rope made of this fibre, which has been in use during many years, for the purpose of embarking the bales (of manufactured goods, I suppose) and chests of sugar: with the same rope the anchors of a line of battle ship were embarked, which had been left at Paraiba by the (charrua) ship Aguia; they were intended for Bahia, and could not be raised by hempen cables of greater diameter.
It is with difficulty that this kind of fibre becomes white by the common manner of bleaching, which proceeds from a certain natural varnish (if I may be allowed so to call it) with which the surface is covered; it does not rot so easily as other kinds of fibre, when soaked in water. From this property the fishermen prefer it for their nets; but notwithstanding the natural varnish of its coloured parts, the fishermen increase its power to resist the water, by carbonising (if I may be allowed so to say) the threads of their nets with astringents which they obtain from various plants; such as the bark of the aroeira and of the coipuna, and for this purpose the nets are steeped for some time in a decoction or infusion of these barks, as is practised in tanning.
From the qualities which it possesses, and which I have just mentioned, I am persuaded that the fibre is well adapted to the manufacture of cables, and cordage; and the specimens of cloth, and one pair of stockings which by this opportunity I forward to the ministry, made of it, indicate the possibility of manufacturing sail-cloth from it, and even finer cloths, if improvements were made in its preparation; but these are at present entirely disregarded.