268 



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 Scitamineae and Maran- 

 tacese, with which the Banana tribe is strictly related. Agardh characterizes 

 it as gynandrous (/. c.) but it does not appear upon what principle. The 

 flower of Musa is well described in the Appendix to the Congo Expedition, 

 471., in a note : that of Strelitzia is pentandrous and exceedingly irregular, 

 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 the plains of the tropics, bej^ond which they do not 

 naturally extend, unless in Japan, the 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 nutritive 

 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 remarka- 

 ble 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 actu- 

 ally 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 speci- 

 osa, 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^E. The Rush Tribe. 



Junci, Juss. Gen. (1769), in part.—JvxCEit, Dec. Ft. Fr. 3. 155. (1815); R. Ilrown Prodr. 

 257. (1810); Dec. and Duby, 474. (1828) ; Ldndl. Synops. 273. (1829.)— Juncacex, Agardh 

 Aphor. 156. (1823), in part. 



Diagnosis. Hexapetaloideous herbaceous monocotyledons, with a superior 

 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. 



Essential Character. — Flowers monoclinous or diclinous. Calyx and corolla forming 

 an inferior, 6-parted, more or less glumaceous perianthium. Stamens (i, inserted into the 

 base of the segments ; sometimes 3, and then opposite the calyx. Anthers 2-celled. Ovarium 

 1- or 3-celled, 1- or many-seeded, or 1-cellcd and 3-secded. Style]. Stigmas generally 3, 

 sometimes only 1. Fruit capsular, with 3 valves, which have the dissepiment in their middle, 

 sometimes destitute of valves, and 1-seeded by abortion. Seeds with a testa, which is neither 

 black nor crustaceous; albumen firm, fleshy, or cartilaginous; embryo within it. R. Br. 

 (1810.) — Herbaceous plants, with fascicled or fibrous roots. Leaves fistular, or flat and chan- 

 nelled with parallel veins. Injloresccnce often more or less capitate. Fhicers generally 

 brown or green. 



