ANGIOSPERM& 193 
ized by an inferior ovary and strongly zygomorphic 
flowers, with a reduction in the number of stamens 
often to a single one. These two orders represent un- 
doubtedly the highest degree of specialization among 
the Monocotyledons. 
THE ScITAMINEA 
The Scitaminez are, with very few exceptions, tropical 
plants of very striking and characteristic appearance. 
They are mostly plants of large size with very large 
leaves and often showy flowers. Many of them are 
cultivated for the beauty of their foliage and flowers, 
like the species and varieties of Canna (Fig. 47, A), 
while others, like the ginger, and especially the banana 
and plantain, are important food plants. They usually 
have a thick underground rhizome from which are sent 
up the strong shoots, whose large leaves when young 
are usually rolled up like a cornucopia. Each shoot in 
most of them terminates in a large inflorescence, and 
after the fruit is ripe the shoot dies. Occasionally the 
growth of the stem is not checked by the formation of 
flowers, and it may assume almost tree-like proportions, 
as in the curious “traveller’s tree,” Ravenala. The 
flowers of some genera, like Canna, are themselves very 
showy, but quite as often the showy inflorescence owes 
its attractiveness to the bright-colored bracts in whose 
axils the inconspicuous flowers are borne. This is well 
illustrated by the gaudy yellow or scarlet bracts of Heli- 
conia and the pink or crimson ones of many species of 
Zingiber. 
Another peculiar order of Monocotyledons confined to 
) 
