2. Ravenala.] 155. MUSACEM. 



Strelitzia retinae, A it., and S. augusta, Thunb.,aYe more rarely seen. Their leaves 

 are similarly arranged on short or slender stems and their flowers often brilliantly 

 coloured, in S. reqince orange-coloured with 2 deep blue or purple petals. S. augusta 

 is sometimes called the white-flowered bhd-of-Paradise flower. 



FAM. 156. ZINGIBERACEiE. 



Perennial herbs, often very large, usually with fleshy rhizomes and 

 thick roots. Stem well developed or composed of the leaf-sheaths 

 only. Scape sometimes distinct from the leaves. Leaf-sheaths 

 usually with a ligule. Inflorescence various. Flowers moderate- 

 sized or large, usually zygomorphic. Perianth superior, dififerentiated 

 into 3-merous calyx and corolla. Calyx more or less tubular or spatha- 

 ceous, generally shortly 3-toothed, often colourless. Corolla usually 

 on an elongated quasi-hypanthium (corolla-tube) bearing the 3 petals 

 (of which the dorsal is usually somewhat cucullate or different) and 

 also the androecium. Stamen only one perfect, being the dorsal one 

 of an inner whorl, of which the tAvo anterior members are combined 

 into a petaloid lip with its hinder margins embracing the fertile stamen. 

 Besides these are usually present the two obliquely posterior members 

 of the (theoretical) outer staminal whorl, lateral staminodes, which 

 are sometimes reduced to teeth or are petaloid or absent, the third 

 (anterior) member of the outer whorl being ahvaj^s absent. Connec- 

 tive of fertile stamen often produced or appendaged. Ovary 3 -celled 

 with axile placentation, more rarely 1 -celled with 3 parietal placentae. 

 Style very long and delicate often placed in a groove of the stamen, 

 and the usually funnel-shaped ciliolate stigma projecting beyond the 

 anther-cells. Ovules many. Fruit usually capsular but often 

 tardily dehiscent, sometimes indehiscent or irregularly breaking up. 

 Seeds often arilled, with large mealy perisperm enclosing smaller 

 endosperm. Embryo straight, cylindric. 



The plants of this family are often aromatic when bruised. 

 I. Ovary 1-celled : — 



Herbs under 3 ft. Flowers not large, yellow . . .1. Globba. 



II. Ovary 3-celled :— 



A. Lateral staminodes well-developed, usually free, broad 



(exc. sometimes in 5) : — 



1. Inflorescence a dense bracteate spike crowned with a 



crest of coloiu'ed barren bracts (coma) . . .2. Curcuma. 



2. Inflorescence without a coma of barren bracts :— 



a. Connective very broad or crested. Flowers not in 



dense spikes, sometimes 1-2 only : — 

 Connective broad, not crested . . . .3. Gastrochilus. 



Connective crested . . . . . .4. Kcenipferia. 



b. Connective very narrow, not crested. Flowers in 



many-flowered usually dense spikes . . .5. Hedychium. 



B. Lateral staminodes very small, or narrow and adnate to 



lip, or 0. (In Zingiber ^vi). the broad lateral lobes of the 

 lip might be taken for lateral staminodes) : — 



1. Flowers in dense, often strobilate spikes with imbricate 



bracts : — 

 Inflor. distinct from leafy stem. Connective crested 



or not produced .6. Amomum. 



Inflor. usually distinct from leafy stem. Connective 



produced into a long beak . . . . .7. Zhtgiber. 



Inflor. terminating the leafy stem. Filament petaloid 8. Costus. 



2. Flowers in loose spikes or panicles terminating the 



leafy stem 9. Alpinia. 



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