7 FLACOURTIA INERMIS. 
Trunk short, soon dividing into numerous branches, which form 
a large, very dense head of great beauty. Bark smooth, 
brownish, perfecily destitute of every thing like thorns, or 
prickles. 
Leaves alternate, short-petioled, elliptic, smooth, shining green 
on both sides ; when they first expand reddish, and then the 
tree is uncommonly gaudy ; length from three to six inches. 
Petioles semicylindric. 
Stipules none. 
Racemes axillary, longer than the petioles, few-flowered. Pedicels 
clavate, jointed near the middle. 
Bractes ovate, caducous. 
Calyx deeply 4-or 5-parted: divisions reniform, shorter than the 
stamens and pistil. 
Corol none. 
Filaments about twenty, inserted on a fleshy, nectariferous ring, 
which surrounds the base of the germ. Anthers two-lobed. 
Germ ovate. Style 5-cleft, spreading. . 
A native of the Moluccas, where the tree is cultivated for its 
pleasant edible fruit. It has lately been introduced into the 
Botanic Garden at Calcutta, where it thrives well, and blossoms 
during the dry season. 
223. MUSA SUPERBA. 
Stem conical. Leaves petioled, but not sheathing. Spadix nod- 
ding. Spathes cordate, many-flowered, those of the female-her- 
maphrodite flowers permanent. 
Trunk almost conical, being only three feet to the leaves ; seven and 
a half in circumference, close to the ground; and four and 
a half immediately under the leaves; and invested with the 
numerous, somewhat stem-clasping bases of those that are de- 
cayed ;_ height of the whole plant, to the highest part of the 
curvature of the spadix, 13 feet. 
Leaves numerous, equally surrounding every part of the leafy 
stem, petioled, lanceolate, very entire, until broken by 
wind, filiform-pointed, smooth on both sides, with nume- 
rous parallel, diverging veins ; length from five to ten feet, 
and from two to three broad. 
Petioles short (about two feet long); the lower broad, embrace 
the stem at the base ; while those near the spadix have long, 
stem-clasping sheaths, semicylindric on the under side, deeply 
channeled on the upper. 
Spadix terminal, simple, drooping; before any of the spathes ex- 
pand cordate. 
Spathes numerous, expanding in succession, broad-cordate, slightly 
ribbed, smooth, ferruginous, many-flowered, permanent, 
and do not become revolute. 
Flowers very numerous, 20-30, on a double series, to each spathe ; 
the female-hermaphrodite occupy the base, or lower spathes ; 
and the male-hermaphrodite the exterior. 
Petals two, very unequal. Exterior involving the inner like a 
spathe, leathery, three-parted, though the linear divisions 
often adhere by their margins, and soon after expansion 
PART III. 
MUSA SUPERBA. 18 
become twisted in one body. Inner petal five or six times 
shorter than the exterior, pale coloured, almost pellucid, and 
composed of two subrotund lobes, with an ensiform process 
between them ; from the inside of the insertion of this petal, 
a very large quantity of transparent jelly is discharged. 
Nectary: two filiform scales, inserted over the two fissures of 
the exterior petal. 
So far the male-and female-hermaphrodite flowers agree. 
Filaments five, with the rudiment of a sixth on the under side. 
Anthers, in the male hermaphrodite longer and thicker than 
the filaments ; in the female hermaphrodite wanting, or only 
small, black, withered points. 
Germ beneath; in the female-hermaphrodite large, and fertile ; 
in the male, small and barren. Style linear, thick, and fleshy ; 
in the female-hermaphrodite twice as long as the barren 
stamens ; in the male-hermaphrodite only half the length 
of the fertile stamens. Stigma in both somewhat three- 
grooved, and obscurely six-lobed, clammy. 
Berry oblong, size of a goose’s egg, smooth, 3-celled. 
Seeds numerous, angular, and black. 
A native of the vallies, of the southern part of the Peninsula of 
India ; from thence Dr. Anderson of Madras received it into his 
garden, where it blossomed and ripened its seed; part of which 
he sent to the Botanic Garden at Calcutta, where they were sown 
inJune 1800, and in March and April 1803, one of the plants 
blossomed. 
The fruit of this elegant stately species is of no use ; when ripe 
it is more like adry capsule, than a berry. The thick petioles, or 
ribs of the leaves, contain a considerable quantity of strong white 
fibres, which might be employed for various purposes. 
224. TERMINALIA PROCERA. 
Branches horizontal, verticillate. Leaves cuneate, polished. Ra- 
cemes axillary. Corol rotate. Drupe oblong, obscurely five- 
sided: Nut of the same shape. 
Leaves crowded about the ends of the branchlets, short-petiol’d, cu- 
neate ; margins slightly waved ; apex rounded, with a large 
rather obtuse point ; perfectly smooth on both sides; veins 
parallel, and simple, with a small hairy pitin the axil of each, 
and two glands on the sides of the nerve near the base; from 
8 to 12 inches long, and from 4 to 5 broad. 
Racemes axillary, solitary, shorter than the leaves. 
Flowers numerous, small, pure white. Hermaphrodite near the base 
of the raceme; Male farther on. 
Corol salver-shaped, spreading flat without any tube. 
Stamens alternately short, and incurved. 
Drupe oblong, obscurely five-sided, but not in the least compressed 
as in Terminalia Catappa, which in most respects this species 
resembles very exactly ; when ripe, yellow. Pulp in large 
quantity, of a lively red colour, and pleasant subacid taste. 
Nut in shape exactly like the drupe, but the five sides are better 
defined than in the entire fruit, 
