HAP. V. ORNAMENTAL TREES, SHRUBS, ETC. 353 



protuberant ribs, and footstalks four or five feet long, clasping 

 each other in the lower part of the plant, whence they spring : 

 a plant of most noble aspect, but requires much room, and to 

 be grown in an open situation where no part of it is concealed. 



Strelitzia. 



A genus of plants natives of the Cape, in the highest estima- 

 tion in Europe for what are considered their gorgeous flowers. 



1. S. angustifolia. An uninteresting plant with narrow, rush- 

 like leaves ; met with in the Botanical Gardens. 



2. S. reginse. Accounted a magnificent plant in Europe for its 

 shapeless flowers, in my opinion more singular than beautiful, 

 having their sepals resembling so many orange-coloured splints 

 of different forms, bundled together with two arrow-headed 

 deep-purple petals, and projecting from a narrow spathe six 

 inches long. The plant has been exhibited in flower at the 

 Calcutta shows, but is a rarity. Said to be raised most readily 

 by seed, obtained through impregnating the stigma when the 

 plant is in flower. 



Urania. 



U. speciosa, syn. Ravenala Madagascarensis TRAVELLER'S TREE. 

 The following is a condensed description of this plant as 

 given by Mr. Ellis : 



" The tree rises from the ground with a thick succulent stem, 

 from the centre of which it sends out long, broad leaves like those 

 of the Plantain, only less fragile, and rising not round the stalk, but 

 in two lines on opposite sides. The tree presents the appearance 

 of a large open fan. Many of the trees are at least thirty feet from 

 the ground to the lowest leaves. I frequently counted from twenty 

 to twenty-four leaves on a single tree, the stalk of each leaf being 

 six or eight feet long, and the broad leaf itself four or six feet more. 



" This tree has been most celebrated for containing, even during 

 the most arid season, a large quantity of pure fresh water in the 

 thick firm ends of the stalks of the leaves, supplying to the 

 traveller the place of wells in the desert." * 



Small plants, four or five feet high, are not uncommon in 

 gardens about Calcutta. Easily propagated by division; but 

 bears too great resemblance to a Plantain to be regarded as 

 ornamental in this country. 



* * Madagascar,' p. 302. 



2 A 



