327 
hairs, with an integument which is usually crustaceous ; embryo in the axis of mealy 
albumen. — Stemless or nearly stemless plants. Leaves sheathing at the base, and forming 
a kind of spurious stem ; often very large ; their limb separated from the taper petiole by 
a round tumour, and having fine parallel veins diverging regularly from the midrib towards 
the margin. 
Anomalies. Heliconia has only 1 ovule in each ceil. The lamina of the leaf occa- 
sionally disappears in Strelitzia. 
Affinities. These have been pointed out under Zingiberacese and Ma- 
rantaceiE, with which the Banana tribe is strictly related. Agardh charac- 
terises it as gynandrous (/. c.) but it does not appear upon what principle. 
The flower of Musa is well described in the Appendix to the Congo Expedition, 
471., in a note : that of Strelitzia is pentandrous and exceedingly irregular, 
and is admirably illustrated in Bauer’s drawings, published some years since by 
Ker, under the title of Strelitzia Depicta. The hilum of the seed gives rise 
to a tuft of long hairs in Urania and Strelitzia. For remarks upon the dis- 
tinctive characters of some of the genera of Musaceae, see Endl. Prodr. 
p. 34. 
Geography. Natives of the Cape of Good Hope, the islands of its south- 
east coast, and generally of the plains of the tropics, beyond which they do 
not naturally extend, unless in Japan, the climate of which seems to be much 
at variance with that of other countries in the same latitude. 
Properties. Most valuable plants, both for the abundance of nutritive 
food aflbrded by their fruit, and for the many domestic purposes to which the 
gigantic leaves of some species are applied. These are used for thatching 
Indian cottages, for a natural cloth from which the traveller may eat his food, 
as a material for basket-making, and finally they yield a most valuable flax 
(Musa textilis), from which some of the finest muslins of India are prepared. 
The stems are formed of the united petioles of the leaves, which are remarka- 
ble for the vast quantity of spiral vessels they contain : these exist in such 
numbers as to be capable of being pulled out by handfuls, and they are actually 
collected in the West Indies and sold as a kind of tinder. Dec. Org. 38. The 
number of threads in each convolution of these spiral vessels varies from 7 to 
22. Ibid. 37. The young shoots of the Banana are eaten as a delicate vege- 
table. The root of Heliconia Psittacorum, and the seed of Urania speciosa, 
are said to be eatable. The juice of the fruit and the lymph of the stem of 
Musa are slightly astringent and diaphoretic. The juice of the fruit of Urania 
is used for dying. Agdh. 
GENERA. 
Heliconia, L. Musa, L, 
Strelitzia, Ait. RavenaJa, Adans. 
Urania, Schreb. 
Alliance II. NARCISSALES, 
Essential Character. — Flowers hexandrous. Sepals and Petals equally petaloid* 
Leaves smooth or hairy, never scurfy, with the veins running parallel from the base to the 
apex. 
The regular flowers, with all the parts equally and completely developed, 
form these plants into a peculiar group. Ixiales differ in the suppression of 
one series of the stamens ; and Bromeialles in the outer series of the floral 
envelopes being calycine; while Hydrales, agreeing with the latter fn the 
