| 1 | Ovary inferior or nearly so; fruit baccate; seed without appendage at maturi- ty; (plant often terrestrial, mostly with spinose-serrate leaves; indument almost always of obvious scales). |
| 1' | Ovary superior or largely so in most genera, to inferior; fruit at least partly capsular and dehiscent, or if not (Pitcairnia in part) then the seed appen- daged. |
| 2 | Plant usually terrestrial, mostly with spinose-serrate leaves; indument of finely to scarcely divided scales or lacking at maturity; seed-appendages entire, slightly divided or lacking. |
| 2' | Plant terrestrial or epiphytic, always with entire leaves; indument mostly of obvious radially symmetric scales (or produced at one side); seed- appendages always present, finely divided and forming a coma. |
