- 318 — 



H. indica Lamk belongs, as does H. Bihai, to the first section of 

 the genus, Taeniostrobus O.K. (Platychlamys Baker). I am not 

 able to ideiitify it with one of the 12 badly described species which 

 SCHUMANN iii his moiiograph of the Musaceae brings to this section, 

 neither can ! ideiitify it with any of the Braziiian ones described by 

 Peterson in Flora Brasiliensis 111,3. H. latispatha under which 

 name a spécimen of it (XV, I, 12) was cultivated in the Buitenzorg Botanical 

 Gardens differs (Baker, Ann. Bot. Vil, 195) by its long peduncled inflores- 

 cence, much narrower spathes (3V2— 4 cM round at base) and pubescent ped- 

 icels. Up to now H. indica has been found with certainty only in Poiynesia 

 and the Indian Archipelago whilst ail the other species of the genus inhabit 

 America. That XV, 1, 12 Hort. Bog. is reported to be introduced from Brazil 

 may be due to an error in the registers. As H. indica is apparently a little 

 known though widely distributed species I think it advisable to give hère 

 a more complète description of it. 



HELICONIA INDICA Lamk, Encyclopédie Méthodique 1(1783), p. 426, 427. 



Persoon, Syn. Plant. 1,263, —H. B i h ai Auct. non L.— BoA^r in Annals of Botany VII, 

 192, 193 (ex parte), — //ey/îc, Nuttige Planten Nederl. Indië I, 206,— Koorders, Verslag 

 Bot. Dienstreis Minahassa 313 (ex parte),— Exkursionsflora I, 314 315,— P////e in Ency- 

 clop. Ned. Indië, 2 druk, 90,— Valeton in Merrill, Interpret. Rumph. Herb. Amboin., 

 150,— H buccinata Roxb., Hort. Beng. (1814, nomen nudum),— Flora Indica (1832) I, 

 670,671,— H eliconiopsis amboin ensis Miq., Flora Ind. Batav. III. 590. 



Inflorescence nearly sessile, made up of 4—7 flowering spathes. Lower 

 spathes 20—25 cM long, 8 — 10 cM round at the base, quite glabrous, bright 

 green, often yellowish at the base, margins with a very narrow red border, 

 which soon dries up and becomes brown. Flowers within each bract very 

 many, exserted from the spathes with their upper halves only, bracts 

 acute, distinctly keeled, pubescent, hiding the pedicels, ovary and base 

 of calyx of the newly opened flowers. Pedicels 12 — 15 mM long, glabrous, 

 orange at the top, much thinner than the ovary, ovary disticly trigo- 

 nous, 15—20 mM. long, bright orange-coloured, glabrous, cells (at 

 cross-section through the middle) broadest in a radial direction. 

 Sepals green with a reddish base, 55 — 60 mM long, united at the base 

 into a 8 — 10 mM long tube. Margins of foremost petal almost entirely 

 connate with the inner margins of the latéral ones, petals ail firmly cohering 

 with the calyx, about as long as the latter, stamens about as long as the 

 calyx, staminode 5—6 m M broad, acute. Well-developed fruit not seen, 

 according to Rumphius 4—5 cM long, l'/2-2 cM broad (in the Javanese 

 spécimens only 20—25 mM long, ± 10 mM broad, with cells never con- 

 taining a seed but only a shrivelled ovule). Spurious stems 1,00—2.25 M 

 long, pétioles 30 — 80 cM, lamina lanceolate with rounded. unequal base 

 and shortly acuminate apex, 50—120 cM long, 20—35 cM broad, green, 

 yellowish green or streaked with yellow, costa green or yellowish beneath. 

 dividing the lamina into 2 inequal parts, the narrower of which descends 

 lower along the pétiole. Total height 2.50—3.50 M. Flowers ail the year round. 



