492 TEKTANERlA MON'OGYNlA. Musa. 



permost and lowermost filled with spongy matter, the middle one is 

 occupied bv the friable white perisperm, in the middle of the base 

 thereof is lodged the small, simple, short, sub-obconic embryo, the 

 whole nearly as in Gaert iter's Sapient urn, carp. i 4 28. t. 11./, 1. 



6. M. nepalensis, Wall. 



Stem lengthened and sheathed, conical. Leaves spreading in all 

 directions on short petiols* Spadix slightly nodding. 

 Newar Gompoo kwla-. 



I have found it in various parts of Nipal from Becheaco to the 

 valley, growing on the smaller mountains, and delighting in dense, 

 shady forests. It commences blossoming as soon as the ramy sea- 

 son sets in and ripens its fruit during the close of it. 



IYum& short, cone-shaped, very thick at the base, measuring as far 

 as two feet in diameter, covered with the withered bases of the old 

 petiok; from thence tapering gradually towards the top where the 

 leaves are fewer, more distant and much smaller; the heighth scarce- 

 ly exceeds five or six feet.— The leaves as in M. superba rather 

 smaller and somewhat glaucous; the uppermost become gradually 

 very short, until they at length change into barrren spathes. — Petioh 

 decurrent and sheathing, as those of M. glauca.— Inflorescence very 

 large and showy, clavate, nodding; before expansion closely im- 

 bricate like a large cabbage; spathes withering, deep purple and fur- 

 furaceous within; their apex recurved, mostly two-lobed. — Flowers 

 yellowish, placed in two rows within each spathe, seven or eight in 



a row, two inches and a half long Hermaphrodite perianthium 



double, membranous and sub-diaphanous; exterior one-leaved, 

 deeply but unequally three-cleft, unilateral; lobes linear, spiral, 

 hanging down loosely with their apices twisted together in a cylinder, 

 bases distinct; before expansion they are sub-valvate, uniting together 

 in a cylinder which is marked with three blunt angles; the uppermost 

 fissures proceeding almost to the base, where it widens and receives 

 the base of the superiorleaflet of the inner perianthium. The inner one 

 consists of three distinct leaflets; the middle or uppermost of which b 



