CH. XIII] 



THE MONOCOTYLEDONS 



537 



of the* order have minor uses as food or medicine, the most 



important being the Yam, so valuable in the tropics for 



its huge, tuberous, edible 



roots. Related is the re- 



markable Testudinaria (Fig. 



382). 



SERIES C. THE SPECIALIZED 

 MONOCOTYLEDONS. 



In these the flowers, while 

 retaining their conspicuous- 

 ness, bej)ojQCLe_---feffiajably 

 specialized by the develop- 

 ment of^oTaTTuTi 

 ovaries-reduction of 

 ber in some whorls, and 

 irregularity of parts. Some 

 of these features are ob- 

 viously adaptive to the 

 visits of certain kinds of 

 cross-pollinating insects, or 

 to the development of cer- 

 tain forms of fruits in con- 

 nection with dissemination 

 by aid of animals; but 

 others have no traceable 

 connection with function 



, , , FIG. 382. Testudinaria 



and suggest rather some pes; XT ^ 



principle of diversity as It grows in South Africa. 



i i_* i_ 



SUCh, Ot Which We 



glimpses in many 



.1 i . 



places in the plant king- 



dom. They include two orders of special importance. 



elephanti- 



In the 



wet season, it spreads a leafy shoot, 

 gain wh ich dies down to the condensed stem 

 Other for the dry season. (From Le Maout 

 and Decaisne.) 



ORDER 8. SCITAMINALES: THE BANANAS AND KIN. 

 About 1200 species, mostly tropical undergrowth giant herbs, 



