S$8 
FLORA OF ADEN. 
Description : — Rootstock filiform, much-branched, branches often 
forming intricate masses, clothed with capillary root-hairs. Leaves soli- 
tary or in pairs at the nodes of the rootstock, 2 — 2J inches long, from 
broadly oval to linear-oblong, glabrous, tip rounded or subacute, veins 
inter-marginal and the costae united by faint reticulating venules; 
petiole J — 2 inches long, filiform, base hardly dilated. 
Spathes about /^-inch long. Male peduncled. Female sessile or 
peduncled ; anthers subsessile, shortly oblong, obtuse ; ovary T \ inch 
long, ovules about 12. 
Locality : — Aden (Defl.) . 
Distribution : — Shores of Red Sea, Indian Ocean, China, Malay 
Islands, Pacific Islands, Australia. 
Note : —This is a very pretty little marine plant, varying in form and 
more so in size. In the type the blade is oval-oblong and about 1^ 
inches long, but it is not seldom almost rotund and sometimes linear- 
strap-shaped. 
XL1X. -SCIT A MIX ACE/E. 
Defiers mentions the following plant as being cultivated at Shaik 
Othman, 
Musa paradisiaca Linn. Sp. PI. (1753) 1013; Trim, FI. Ceyl. IV, 
&65 ; K. Schum. in Engl. Pflanzenr. IV, part 45 (1900) 19. 
Musa paradisiaca var. normalis O. Kuntze Revis. Gen. II (1891) 
692. 
Musa Cliffortiana Linn. Sp. PI. (1753) 1043 in syn. 
Musa sapientum var. paradisiaca Baker in Ann. Bot. VII (1893) 
213 ; Hook. FI. Brit. Ind. VI, 262. 
The well-known Banana or Plantain, called ‘ mooz ’ by the Arabs. 
Native country uncertain, but probably of Asiatic origin. 
Ibn el-Beithar gives some interesting notes on the medicinal pro- 
perties of this plant (vol. Ill, 343—345). 
L.— AMARlliLIDACEiE, 
Perennial herbs, rarely shrubs or undershrubs. Rootstock a bulb. 
not. 
Flowers few, often umbellate; bracts membranous or coloured, rarely 
herbaceous, the outer under the umbel 1 — 3 (rarely many -) involu- 
crate ; occasionally the inflorescence racemose or paniculate with scattered 
bracts. Perianth regular or irregular, 2-seriate, 6-lobed or -partite, 
sometimes with a corona at the mouth of the tube. Stamens 5, adnate 
