270 



ledons, with an inferior ovarium, and leaves with veins diverging from the 

 midrib to the margin. 



Anomalies. Heliconia has only 1 ovulum in each cell. The lamina of 

 the leaf occasionally disappears in Strelitzia. 



Essential Character. — Flowers spathaceous. Perianlhium 6-parted, superior, 

 petaloid, in 2 distinct rows, more or less irregular. Stamens 6, inserted upon the middle 

 of the divisions, some often becoming abortive; anthers linear, turned inwards, 2-celled, 

 often having a membranous petaloid Crest. Ovarium inferior, S-celled, many-seeded, rarely 

 3-seeded ; style simple ; stigma usually 3-lobed. Fruit either a 3-celled capsule with a locu- 

 licidal dehiscence, or succulent and indehiscent. Seeds sometimes surrounded by hairs, 



with an integument which is usually crustaceous ; embryo in the axis of mealy albumen 



Stemless or nearly stemless plants. Leaves sheathing at the base, and forming a kind of 

 spurious stem ; often very large ; their limb separated from the taper petiole by a round 

 tumour, and having fine parallel veins diverging regularly from the midrib towards the 

 margin. 



Affinities. These have been pointed out under Scitamineee and Ma- 

 rantacese, with which the Banana tribe is Strictly related. Agardh charac- 

 terises it as gynandrous (I. c), but it does not appear upon what principle. 

 The flower of Musa is well descrilied in the Appendix to the Congo Expedi- 

 tion, 471., in a note: that of Strelitzia is pentandrous and exceedingly irre- 

 gular, and is admirably illustrated in Mr. Bauer's drawings, published some 

 years since by Mr. Ker, under the title of Strelitzia Depicta. The hilum of 

 the seed gives rise to a tuft of long hairs in Urania and Strelitzia. 



Geography. Natives of the Cape of Good Hope, the islands of its 

 south-east coast, and generally of the plains of the tropics, beyond which 

 they do not naturally extend, unless in Japan, tlie climate of which seems 

 to be much at variance with that of other countries in the same latitude. 



Properties. Most valuable plants, both for the abundance of nutritiv 

 food afforded by their fruit, and for the many domestic purposes to which the 

 gigantic leaves of some species are applied. These are used for thatching 

 Indian cottages, for a natural cloth from which the traveller may eat his food 

 as a material for basket making, and finally they yield a most valuable flax 

 (Musa textilis), from which some of the finest muslins of India are prepared 

 The stems are formed of the united petioles of the leaves, which are remark- 

 able for the vast quantity of spiral vessels they contain : these exist in such 

 numbers as to be capable of being pulled out by handfuls, and they are 

 actually collected in the West Indies and sold as a kind of tinder. Dec. 

 Org. 38. The number of threads in each convolution of these spiral vessels 

 varies from 7 to 22. Ibid. 37. The young shoots of the Banana are eaten 

 as a delicate vegetable. The root of Heliconia Psittacorum, and the seed of 

 Urania speciosa, are said to be eatable. The juice of the fruit and the lymph 

 of the stem of Musa are slightly astringent and diaphoretic. The juice of the 

 fruit of Urania is used for dying. Agdh. 



Examples. Musa, Heliconia, Strelitzia, Urania. 



CCXLIV. JUNCE^. The Rush Tribk. 



JuNCi, Juss. Gen. (17«0), in parf.—Jvvicr.JF., Dec. Fl. Fr. .3. 155. (1815); It. Brown 

 Prodr. 257. (1810); Dec. and Duly, 474. (1828); Lindl. Synops. 27;J. (182!)).— 

 JuncacejE, Agardh Aphor. 156. (1823), in part. 



Diagnosis. Hcxapetaloideous herbaceous monocotyledons, with a supe- 

 rior ovarium, a half-glumaceous regular perianthium, a pale soft testa, a 

 single style, capsular fruit, and an embryo next the hilum. 



Anomalies. Flowers sometimes scarcely glumaceous. 



