Musa.] Scitaminccr. 265 



Waste places; very common throughout the island. Fl. all the year; 

 scarlet or yellow. 



Throughout the Eastern Tropics. 



The S. name means ' Help from Buddha,' and is due to the use of the 

 seeds for rosaries by Buddhist worshippers. 



The Indian and Ceylon and Malayan form is C. oricntalis, Rose. It 

 varies with either scarlet or yellow flowers. The seeds are known as 

 Indian shot, and the rootstock is eaten from its abounding in starch. 



14. BIUSA, Linn. 



Stem subarboresccnt, of convolute 1. sheaths; 1. very large, 



petioled, oblong, midrib very stout, veins horizontal; fl. in a 



terminal, stout spike, lower fern., upper male; bracts large, 



spathiform, many-fld. ; fl. sessile or subsessile ; cal. tubular, 



slit to the base in front, 5-toothed, teeth recurved, 3 outer 



larger; cor. a single, convex, membranous petal, opposite the 



slit of the cal., embracing the base of the stam. and style ; 



stam. 5 (6th rudimentary or o) inserted on the top of the ov., 



fil. erect, stout, free, anth. linear, erect, 2-celled, cells parallel ; 



ov. 3-celled, cells many-ovuled, style erect, flliform, base 



thickened, stigma subglobose, 6-lobed ; fr. large, oblong or 



fusiform, fleshy, obtusely 3-5-angled, many-seeded; seeds 



imbedded in pulp, more or less angular, testa crustaceous, 



excavate at the hilum, endosperm mealy, embryo small, close 



to the hilum. — Sp. about 30; 10 (?) in Fl. B. Ind. 



M. paradisiaca, L. Sp. PI. 1043 (i753)- Kehel, G-al- 

 kehel, 5. 



Herm. Mus. 70. Burm. Thes. 164. Fl. Zeyl. n. 368. Moon, Cat. 70. 

 M. Trog/odytarum, Moon, Cat. 71 (.'' L.). M. safnentiitn, L., Moon, Cat. 

 70; Thw. Enum. 321. C. P. 3731. 



Fl. B. Ind. vi. 262 {M. sapientum). Roxb. Cor. PL t. 275 (not good), 

 M. sapietttuni. 



Rootstock stoloniferous; stem erect, 8-1.? ft. ; !. very stoutly 

 petioled, 4-5 ft. long, oblong, bright green above, paler 

 beneath; spike decurved, about as long as the 1. or shorter, 

 glabrous, ped. about \\ in. diam. below the infl., green, 

 glabrous; male bracts 6 by 2\ in., ovate-oblong, obtuse, deci- 

 duous; male fl. very many in each bract, \\ in. long, nearly 

 white; cal. -lobes ovate, acute; corolla \ i"-' oblong, tip 

 rounded; anth. j in., obtuse; stigma clavate, tip constricted, 

 truncate; fr. 4 in. long, obovate-oblong, slightly curved, sud- 

 denly constricted at the apex, and at the base into a stout 

 pedicel \-\ in. long, obtusely 5-angled, golden-yellow, very 

 many-seeded ; seeds about \ in. diam., subglobose, testa 

 crustaceous, black, obscurely angled and tubercled. 



