Musa. | SCITAMINACEAE. 433 
midrib. Flowers often very showy, in racemes or panicles, on a radical 
or terminal scape or peduncle. 
A considerable tropical Order, common to the Old and New World. 
Fertile stamens 5; stem ta . Musa. 
Fertile stamen 1; anther 2- celled; stem short; spike strobilaceous: 
Lateral staminodes yery small or wanting; connective of anthers 
prolonged beyond the cells; leaves narrow 2. Zingiber. 
Lateral staminodes petaloid; anther with 2 spurs; leaves “proad; 
upper bracts spreadin : 3. ae 
Fertile stamen 1, petaloid; anther 1- celle d 
Of cultivated aaiate belonging to o this Order and nok mentioned below vo, _ nia 
nfined t a, Bl., 
speciosus, Sm., Alpinia Galanga, Sw., Hellenia scabra, paper dichotoma and a few 
others 
1. MUSA, L. 
Calyx striate, tubular, 3—5-toothed, splitting laterally. Corolla shorter 
and included, truncate or dentate. Stamens 5, perfect, with sometimes 
a rudimentary sixth one, included in the corolla, the filaments thick 
i 
a rm , 
6-toothed. Fruit fleshy, indehiscent, elongate se 
angular, the thick and hard testa impressed in the albumen at both ends. 
— Tall, often tree-like herbs, the convolute sheaths of ae large leaves 
forming a stem of considerable height. Scape terminal, ending in a long 
raceme; several flowers in the axils of the large colored bracts, subsessile, 
generally unisexual, Se male at the top, the female at the base of the 
raceme 
About 20 species, natives of the tropics of the Old World. 
1, M. sapientum, L. Sp. Pl. — Raceme or spadix drooping. Bracts 
or spathes of the upper (male) flowers caducous, the lower ones green 
on the inside. Segments of corolla unequal. Fruit oblong, subtrigonal, 
ay a curved, signin 3—6‘ long. 
he Banana, agit f the natives, besides —— ergo epson is found apps 
Pagel ne in the recesses of most mountain-gorg' es formerly used 
9 ation in such spots it possibly ner gctrooies sprite o aboriginal 
Plantations as may be the with «Kalo» and «Apé». The natives, to 
have poss e plant from times immemorial, h 6 varieties, of which one 
with a redd p, very tenacious fibre and a thick copper-co: fruit roduce 
; occasionally, is likely to be i It is however rare, and I haye not had 
the good fo o find it most co these varieties is the 
t 
kind which in Spanish America is ca anak ¢ Guineo»; in S. Hawaii it is sometimes fow 
with variegated white-striped leaves. Since the year 1855 ai ee M. Cavendishii, 
Paxt., which was then introduced from i, has alm wded ou native kinds 
m the cultivated fields, both on account of the eaten vice. br its fruit and 
i 
Brazil Banana, which was received about the same time by way of Tahiti 
ems to be identical with the «Pisang radjah» of Java. Although 
Hillebrand, Flora of-the Hawaiian Islands. 
28 
