VOL. XXXVI.] PHILOSOPHICAL TRANSACTIONS. 423 



Having had an opportunity in the Indies to consider this plant better, M. 

 Garcin soon found that it justly belonged to the liliaceous tribe. It is known 

 that the liliaceous plants have several characters, which distinguish them very 

 well. Their roots are either bulbous, tuberous, or consisting of thick, lieshy 

 fibres: their leaves involve the stalk, more or less at their bases. The substance 

 of their flowers is filled wth silver spangles ; and lastly, their fruits are always 

 divided into three cells. The musa has all these characters. Father Labat says, 

 in his Travels, that the root of this plant is a thick bulb, round and massy, 

 emitting fibres. Marcgrave, who has given a full description of this plant, 

 under the name of pacoeira, has observed, that, at its first appearance, it sends 

 forth 2 or 3 leaves, rolled up like a horn, which unroll themselves, and grow 

 after the manner of the cannacorus. And, according to M. G.'s observation, 

 the fruit in all its species, is constantly divided into 3 cells, which is sufficient 

 to show that it is a true liliaceous plant. 



As Marcgrave, and the authors of the Hortus Malabaricus, have largely de- 

 scribed this plant, M. G. only gives a definition of this genus, to make it 

 better known. 



The musa is a liliaceous plant, with a monopetalous, irregular flower, incom- 

 plete and hermaphrodite, composed of a tube, filled with the ovary, and a 

 pavilion divided into several lobes, and forming a kind of mouth. The ovary, 

 which adheres strongly to the tube, is triangular, and crowned with 5 chives, 

 which grow from the sides of the flower ; it has also a stile, which is terminated 

 by a little head. It afterwards becomes a soft, angular, long, crooked fi-uit, 

 something like a cucumber. This fruit, when ripe, is fleshy, and divided into 

 3 cells, filled with a mucilaginous pulp ; under v/hich the seed is placed along a 

 placenta, which serves as an axis to the fruit. 



This seed is small, round, edged with an almost imperceptible leaf. The 

 flowers grow at the end of the stalk, in knots disposed in a spike. Each knot 

 is loaded with two rows of flowers, covered with a membranous, hollow, thick, 

 oval covering, which serves them for a common empalement. In the Hortus 

 Malabaricus there are 3 plates, which give a good representation of the plant, 

 its flower, and its fruit; but there are observed 3 defects in them : 1. That the 

 flower is not represented in its most perfect stale, but almost withered, and so 

 ts pavilion too much cleft, v^hich makes the flower seem tetrapetalous ; for the 

 flowers of these plants divide when they are old, as well as the leaves. 2. That 

 the 3 cells are not shown distinctly, in the transverse section of the fruit. 

 3. That the seed is not represented at all. 



This genus, or family, comprehends 20 or 25 species, known to the Indians, 

 the differences of which are usually taken from their fruits. This plant does 



