Sll/Xa.] HYDEOCHABIDEiE. 347 



1. BLYXA, Thouars. 



Flowers usually dioecious, in a long tubular spatha, a-tootted at the top. 

 Male flowers several in the spatha, protruding from it as they expand. Perianth 

 of 3 outer herbaceous and 3 inner petal-like segments. Stamens 8 or 9. 

 Anthers linear. Female flowers solitary in the sheath, with a long filiform 

 perianth-tube, the segments as in the males. Ovary linear, with 3 parietal 

 placentas. Stigmas 3, entire. Capsule linear, vrith few seeds. 



A genus limited to a single species. 



1. B. Roxburghii, Eich.; Miq. M. Ned. Ind. iii. 237. Leaves sub- 

 merged, sessile, in tufts at the bottom of the water, linear, pointed, 3 or 4 in. 

 long in shallow stiU water, but attaining sometimes a foot or more. Mowers 

 small, raised above the surface of the water on a lengthened peduncle. Outer 

 segments about 2^ lines long, inner ones narrow-linear, twice as long. — 

 Biplosiphon oryzetorum. Dene, in Jacquem. Voy. 166, t. 167. 



Hongkong, Wright, Hance ; in watercourses near Little Hongkong, Wilford. Frequent 

 in India, from Ceylon, the Peninsula, and Cashmere, to the Archipelago and N. Australia. I 

 find the flowers almost always unisexual, even in Jacquemont's specimens, but I have seen a 

 few stamens in some fertile flowers, and it is prohaMy the examination of one of these flowers 

 which induced Decaisne to distinguish a hermaphrodite genus. 



Order CX. SCITAMINEiE. 



Mowers usually hermaphrodite and iiTegular, rarely unisexual. Perianth 

 superior, in 3 series, both petal-like, or the outer one herbaceous or stiff, each 

 3-toothed, or 3-lobed, or of 3 segments. Stamens normally 3 or 6, but in 

 most genera only one bears an anther ; the others are wanting or barren and 

 petal-like, and then often called the inner corolla; one of these, usually larger 

 and opposite the fertile stamen, is then called the labellum. Anthers 3- or 1- 

 ceUed. Ovary inferior, 3-celled, with 1 nr more ovules in each cell, or rarely 

 1-celled. Style single, with an entire or lobed stigma. Fruit a berry or cap- 

 sule. Seeds albuminous. — Herbs, usually with a perennial rhizome. Stem 

 usually short or formed of the convolute leaf-sheaths, and then attaining a 

 considerable height. Leaves entire, with long sheathing petioles ; the limb 

 often very large, with numerous parallel veins diverging from the midrib. 

 Flowers often very showy, in racemes or panicles, on a radical or terminal 

 scape or peduncle. 



A considerable tropical or subtropical Order, common to the New and the Old World. 



Fertile stamens 5. Perianth of 1 outer and 1 inner segment. Leaves 



very large, their sheaths forming a tall stem 1. MuSA. 



Fertile stamen 1. 



Barren stamens (or inner corolla) of one petal-like labellum, with or 



without a very small one on each side 2. Aipinia. 



Barren stamens 3, all petal-like and as long or longer thau the true perianth 3. Canna. 



1. MUSA, Linn. 



Flowers usually unisexual. Perianth of 3 concave coloured entire or 3- 

 lobed segments ; the outer erect, the inner shorter and recurved. Fertile 

 stamens 5. Anthers linear. Ovary 3-ceUed, with numerous ovules. Stigma 



