murr] 



$L\)t (taagurj) of botany. 



764 



white fragrant flowers, M. exotica and M. ( 

 paniculata, are cultivated as stove plants | 

 in this country. The genus derives its i 

 name from John Adam Murray, Professor 

 of Botany at Gottingen. [M. T. M.] 



[M. 

 Another name for 



of Botany 



MURRAYA WOOD. 

 Box-wood. 



MURUCTJJA. A genus of "West Indian 

 climbing shrubs, belonging to the Passi- 

 floracece, and very closely related to Passi- 

 flora, but distinguished from it by the co- 

 ronet or ray, which, in place of consisting 

 of distinct thread-like segments, as in true 

 passion-flowers, has them combined into a 

 tube surrounding the stalked ovary. M. 

 ocellata, the old Passiflora Murucuja, whose 

 handsome scarlet flowers render it very at- 

 tractive, is said to possess anthelmintic 

 and diaphoretic qualities, and to be used in 

 Jamaica as a narcotic. [M. T.M.] 



MUBTILLA. A Spanish name for Eu- 

 genia Ugni. 



MURURA. Victoria regia. 



MURTTTE. A Cingalese name for Lager- 

 strOmia regina. 



MUSACE/E. (Muses, Musads.) A natu- j 

 ral order of petaloid monocotyledons, be- ! 

 longing to Lindley's amomal alliance of 

 Endogens. The plants have shoots proceed- i 

 ing from subterranean rootstocks, which 

 form spurious steins, composed of the 

 sheathing leafstalks ; veins in the limb of 

 the leaf parallel, and proceeding in a curved 

 manner from the midrib to the margin; 

 flowers bursting through spathes. Peri- 

 anth six-cleft, adherent, in two whorls, 

 more or less irregular; stamens six, some 

 usually abortive, the anthers linear, in- 

 trorse, often with a membranous petaloid 

 crest ; ovary inferior, three-celled, the 

 ovules numerous; style simple; stigma 

 usually three-lobed. Fruit either a three- 

 celled capsule with loculieidal dehiscence, 

 or succulent and indehiscent ; seeds some- 

 times surrounded by hairs. They are na- 

 tives of warm and tropical regions, and 

 furnish a large supply of nutritious fruit, 

 while their leaves afford valuable fibres. 

 Spiral vessels abound in them. There are 

 five genera, including Musa and Stre.lit-Ja, 

 and a score or more of species. [J. H. B.] 



MTJSA. The typical genus of Musacem, 

 consisting of a small number of noble her- 

 baceous species, now found growing in the 

 tropical and subtropical zones of both he- 

 mispheres. The true stem is small, but the 

 sheaths of the leaves are very long, and 

 closely compacted so as to form a kind of 

 false stem, rising in some cases from twenty 

 to thirty feet high. The blade of the leaf 

 is large, oblong, with a very prominent 

 midrib, from which smaller ones pass off 

 at right angles. The flowers are borne on 

 a long nodding spike, and are clustered 

 together in groups, protected by larare 

 sometimes highly coloured bracts. The 

 perianth is two-lipped, the lower lip con- [ 

 sisting of five segments separated above, 

 but partly united below, the upper lip con- 1 



sisting of a single concave segment ; there 

 are six stamens, one of which is abortive ; 

 and the ovary is inferior, three-celled, the 

 ovules numerous, attached in two rows to 

 the inner angle of each compartment of 

 the ovary. The fruit is berry-like, with 

 seeds imbedded in pulp. 



M. paradisiaca and M. sapientum are the 

 botanical names by which the Plantain and 

 Banana are respectively known. The latter 

 has its stems marked with purple spots, 

 and its fruits are shorter and rounder than 

 those of the Plan tain, but otherwise the two 

 plants are little different one from the 

 other. They have been cultivated from the 

 most remote times in tropical climates, in 

 subtropical Asia, America, Africa, and the 

 islands of the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans, 

 for the sake of their fruits, which they 

 produce in enormous quantities with very 

 little attention. There are several varie- 

 ties, the fruits of which differ in flavour, 

 but all are more or less mawkish and vis- 

 cid, at least in the ripe state, for the starch 

 that abounds in the unripe fruit becomes 

 converted, as it ripens, into mucilage and 

 sugar. They are highly nutritious, and 

 serve as the staple food of a large number 

 of the human race. Though less nutritious 

 than wheat or potatoes, yet the space occu- 

 pied by their culture, and the care required, 

 are so very much less, that Humboldt has 

 calculated the produce of Bananas com- 

 pared to that of wheat as 133 to 1, and to 

 that of potatoes as 44 to 1. 



Plantain meal is obtained by powdering 

 the dried fruit ; it is very nutritious, as it 

 contains not only starch, but protein or 

 flesh-forming material. The fruits of the 

 Plantain are stated by chemists to be most 

 nearly allied in composition and nutritive 

 value to the potato, and the Plantain meal 

 to rice. The natives of many parts of India 

 live almost entirely on Plantains, and the 

 stems, laden with fruit, are made use of at 

 wedding festivities, in token of plenty. 

 Plantations of Bananas or Plantains are 

 made by settlers to support their families, 

 and the fruits are eaten raw, or cooked in 

 various ways. The expressed juice is in 

 some countries made into a fermented 

 liquor, and the young shoots eaten as a 

 vegetable. 



The specific name, paradisiaca, was given 

 under the supposition that the fruits of 

 the Plantain were the Forbidden Fruit of 

 Scripture, or the fruits called Grapes that 

 the spies brought to Moses from the Pro- 

 mised" Land as evidence of its fertility; 

 but it is hardly necessary to say that there 

 is no foundation for such opinions. 



When the stems are cut down, or decay 

 after the formation of the fruit, new suck- 

 ers are sent up from below, and these in the 

 course of a few months produce fruit in 

 their turn. Each bunch of fruit weighs 

 from sixty to eighty pounds and upwards, 

 even when ripened in hothouses in this 

 country. The abundance and nutritive pro- 

 perties of the fruit are not the only quali- 

 ties which give these plants their value. 

 Their leaves serve as thatch for houses, 

 and for other domestic purposes ; and 



