155. MUSACEM. [2. R.wenala. 



1. M. sapientum, L. Khela, Vem. 



Pseudostem 8-15 ft. with oblong leaves 4-6 ft. long. Spike soon 

 decurved and finally drooping, 3 ft. or more long with very large ovate 

 deep red or dull purplish, more or less pruinose bracts, lower 6-8" 

 long and deciduous, upper often forming a club. Lower bracts with 

 numerous 2-seriate female or hermaphrodite greenish or yellowish 

 flowers about 1-5" long, above these the bracts contain male flowers 

 only or the terminal ones are empty. Connate part of perianth 

 5-toothed, free petal about half as long. Fruit oblong, 3-gonous in 

 the wild form, about 3" long with very astringent scanty flesh and 

 numerous black or brownish black rugose seeds. 



Wild in deep rocky ravines in Singbhum and in the Rajmalial Hills ! On 

 northern slopes of Parasnath ! Ravines in Angul ! The locality, provided it is 

 damp, is a good deal determined by its inaccessibility to wild elephants. Fl. 

 March-July. Fr. r.s. and c.s. 



There are very numerous varieties in cultivation and the best of these have no 

 trace of seeds. They are sometimes divided into M. sapientum proper, the banana, 

 of which the fruit is edible uncooked, and M. paradisiaca, L., the plantain, of which 

 the fruit is only eaten cooked, and is larger than in sapientum. They are increased 

 by separating the rhizome with its new shoots. The old stems die after flowering. 



2. M. ornata, Roocb. Syn. M. rosacea, F.B.I. 



A stout herb 3-5 ft. high with leaves about 4-5 ft. by 1 ft. and 

 petiole 1-2 ft. Spike perfectly erect 15-18" from the base of the linear 

 rose-coloured spathe, the tip of which is foliaceous ; bracts bright 

 rose-colour or pink, oblong-lanc. to ovate-oblong, 3-5" long, only 

 the lowest 4-5 fertile and each bearing 3-4 flowers. Fruits 2-4 in a 

 cluster, trapezoidal in section. 



A very beautiful plant growing in deep black mud alongside sluggish streams 

 in the wildest Singbhum valleys ! Fl. May-July. The plant is said to be culti- 

 vated for ornament and the F.B.I, says that the spike droops in the cultivated 

 form (!). 



Rhizome producing new shoots as in the common plantain. Rhachis of the 

 inflorescence quite glabrous in our plant (but I have found a very sunilar-looking 

 Musa in Upper Burmah, in which the rhachis is densely pubescent and fls. 5-8 in 

 each bract). Perianth 1-5", greenish below, yellow upwards, 5-toothed, free petal 

 as long, colourless. 



2. RAVENALA, Adans. 



Stems often tall and slender, bearing a terminal crown of large 

 long-petioled, markedly distichous leaves, spreading like a fan. 

 Flowers large in short axillary racemes from the axils of large distichous 

 cymbiform bracts. Sepals 3 free similar. Petals 3 free, 3 lateral 

 like the sepals, median shorter. Fertile stamens 5 or 6 with linear 

 anthers sometimes exceeding the filaments. Ovary 3-celled. Style 

 6-toothed at the tip. Fruit a long loculicidal many-seeded capsule. 

 Seed with a large, intensely coloured, fimbriate aril. 



1. R. Madagascarlensis, Sonnemt. The Traveller's Tree. 



A very striking and picturesque, easily recognized tree with a fan-shaped crown 

 of lanceolate-oblong leaves with long petioles, somewhat resembling those of the 

 plantain. 



Native of Madagascar and Reunion. Often seen in large gardens. 



Called Traveller's Tree from the large amount of water collected in the leaf- 

 sheaths which can be drunk. 



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