322 
At.liance I. AMOMALES. 
Essential Character. — Leaves with the veins diverging from the midrib to the 
margin. 
This remarkable character is confined to the following 3 orders in aU Epi- 
gynous Monocotyledons with the exception of one species of Tacca, and it is 
even unknown in any other group except Hypogynosse, where it is found in 
Asphodelese. Tliis renders the distinctions of the three orders exceedingly simple. 
ZiNGiBERACEiE are monandrous, with a whole anther. 
Marantace^ are monandrous, with only haK an anther. 
Musacejs have 5 or six anthers. 
Order CCXXXIII. ZINGIBERACE.E, 
or 
CannjE, Juss. Gen. 62. (1789), in part. — Drymyrhize^, Vent. Tabl. (1799) ; DC. Ess. 
Med. 281. (1816). — Scitamine^, i?. Brotrii, Prodr. 305. (1810) ; Agardh Aph. 182. 
(1823); Rose. Monogr. ; Blume Enumeratio, p. 39. (1827). — Zingiberace^e, 
Rich. Anal. Fr. (1808). — Amome.e, Juss. in Mirhel's Ele'm. 854. (1815) ; Ach. Rich. 
Nouv. Elem. ed. 4. 438. (1828). — Alpiniace^, Link Handb. 1. 228. (1829), a ^ of 
Scitamineae. 
Essential Character. — Calyx superior, tubular, 3-lobed, short. Corolla tubular, 
irregular, with 6 segments in 2 whorls ; the outer 3 -parted, nearly equal, or with the odd 
segment, sometimes differently shaped; the inner (sterile stamens) 3-parted, with the 
intermediate segment (labellum) larger than the rest, and often 3-lobed, the lateral seg- 
ments sometimes nearly abortive. Stamens 3, distinct, of which the 2 lateral are abortive, 
and the intermediate 1 fertile ; this placed opposite the labellum, and arising from the 
base of the intermediate segment of the outer series of the corolla. Filament not petaloid, 
often extended beyond the anther in the shape of a lobed or entire appendage. Anther 2- 
celled, opening longitudinally, its lobes often embracing the upper part of the style. Pollen 
globose, smooth. Ot'ory 3 -celled, sometimes imperfectly so ; ovules several, attached to a 
placenta in the axis; style filiform; stigma dilated, hollow. Fruit usually capsular, 3- 
celled, many-seeded, [sometimes by abortion 1 -celled] ; occasionally berried (the dissepi- 
ments generally central, proceeding from the axis of the valves, at last usually separate 
from the latter, and of a different texture. R. Br.) Seeds roundish, or angular, with or 
without an aril {albumen fioury, its substance radiating, and deficient near the hilum. 
R. Br .) ; embryo enclosed within a peculiar membrane {vitellus, R. Br. Prodr. ; membrane 
of the amnios, ibid, in King’s Voyage, 21), with which it does not cohere. — Aromatic tro- 
pical herbaceous plants. Rhizoma creeping, often jointed. Stem formed of the cohering 
bases of the leaves, never branching. Leaves simple, sheathing, their lamina often sepa- 
rated from the sheath by a taper neck, and having a single midrib, from which very nume- 
rous, simple, crowded veins diverge at an acute angle. Inflorescence either a dense spike, 
or a raceme, or a sort of panicle, terminal or radical. Flowers arising from among spatha- 
ceous membranous bracts, in which they usually lie in pairs. 
Anomalies. — Monocystis has a unilocular monospermous ovarj". 
Affinities. Formerly Zingiberaceae and Marantacese were united in one 
tribe called Cannese, and this is even yet followed by some botanists : hence 
it is certain that they are at least more nearly related to each other than to 
any thing else, and that whatever is the affinity of the one will be that of the 
other. Taking the vegetation into account, these two tribes are exceedingly 
nearly allied to Musaceae, in which is found the same kind of leaf, the veins 
of which are closely set, and diverge from the midrib to the margin, being 
connected by very weak and impei*fect intermediate veins ; the leaves have 
