ZINGIBERACEAE 155 



a nonstoloniferous species, native of India, has been cultivated in Manila 

 ftir ornamental purposes, but has not persisted. Musa coccinea Andn 

 of southern China, a small slender species with erect inflorescence and 

 few-flowered red bracts has also been introduced and cultivated for or- 

 nament, but has not persisted in Manila. 



2. RAVEN ALA Adanson 



Tall trees, with cylindric trunks, the leaves large, oblong, long-petioled, 

 distichous, disposed in one plane in the form of a fan at the top of the 

 trunk. Inflorescence axillary, distichous, compound, bracteate, the bracts 

 spathe-like, many flowered. Flowers perfect. Sepals 3, free, long, narrow, 

 acuminate. Petals 3, the exterior one shorter than the others, narrow, 

 the lateral two similar to the sepals. Stamens 5, slightly shorter than 

 the petals. Ovary 3-c"elled, many-ovuled. Capsule ovoid, somewhat 3- 

 angled, 3-valved. (From its native Madagascar name.) 



Species 2, one in Madagascar and 1 in tropical South America, the 

 former now widely distributed in cultivation. 



*1. E. MADAGASCARiENSis Sonn. Traveller's Tree. 



Trunk erect, cylindric, woody, marked with scars of fallen leaves, up 

 to 10 m in height. Leaves oblong, the blades 1.5 to 3 m long, shorter than 

 the petioles, the petioles stout, imbricated in one plane. Inflorescence in 

 the leaf-axils, about 12 spathes or bracts in each inflorescence. Flowers 

 yellow. 



Not uncommon in cultivation, introduced, rarely flowering here. Its 

 common English name is derived from the fact that travelers in Mada- 

 gascar secure good drinking water from the large cells of the petioles. 



Other representatives of thi§ family, such as Strelitzia regin ae B anks 

 from South Africa, and one or two species of Heliconi a from tropical 

 America, are of such recent introduction here that they are at present very 

 rare in gardens and have not been included. 



29. ZINGIBERACEAE ^ (Ginger or Luya Family) 



Slender or coarse, often aromatic herbs from fleshy rootstocks, the stems 

 simple. Leaves simple, radical or cauline, usually distichous, sometimes 

 spirally arranged, small to large, closely pinnately veined from the midrib, 

 the sheaths usually present, ligule present or absent. Flowers small to 

 large, irregular, perfect, solitary, spicate, racemose, or panicled, often in 

 ■dense cone-like heads, bracts and often bractetles present. Calyx tubular 

 or spathe-like, 3-toothed or lobed, produced above the ovary. Corolla-tube 

 long or short, the limb 3-partite. Perfect stamen 1, one or more petaloid 

 staminodes usually present, the staminodes often large and showy, some- 

 times small and inconspicuous or wanting. Ovary inferior, 1- to 3-celled; 

 style usually slender; ovules many. Fruit a loculicidally 3-valved, mem- 

 branaceous, coriaceous, or fleshy capsule, sometimes indehiscent, crowned by 

 the remains of the perianth. Seeds numerous, arillate or not, small. 



Genera about 45, species over 800, in the tropics of both hemispheres, 

 about 16 genera and 65 species in the Philippines. 



^For a consideration of the Philippine - species see Ridley, H. N., "The 

 Scitamineae of the Philippines." Philip. Journ. Sci. 4 (1909) J5of. 155-199. 



