203 
Genera and Species of Museae. 
Nos. 359,369, 374, Krauss ! Cooper , 1225! Introduced into 
cultivation by Masson in 1791 ; yields a coarse fibre. There is 
a specimen from Masson’s garden, with two clusters of flowers, 
at South Kensington. 
4. S. Nicolai, Regel and Korn, in Gartenfl. t. 235; Flore des Serres, 
XIII, 1 2 1, tab. 1356 ; Hook. fil. in Bot. Mag. t. 7038. Whole 
plant reaching a height of 25 feet. Leaves like those of S. 
augusta. Branch-bracts a foot long, red-brown, 4-6 in. round 
at the base. Sepals white, lanceolate, 6-7 in. long, an inch 
broad. Petals blue, the blade of the lower 3-4 in. long, with a 
large ovate auricle ; back petal orbicular, with a large cusp. 
Anthers 3-4 in. long, twice as long as the filaments. Style- 
cusps above 2 in. long. Cape Colony. No exact station is 
known. It is first known as having been seen in a garden in 
Madeira in 1849. It flowered at St. Petersburgh in 1858, and 
was named in compliment to the Emperor Nicholas. 
Genus 3. Ravenala, Adans. 
( Urania , Schreb.) 
Flowers hermaphrodite. Sepals 3, free to the base, lanceolate, convex 
on the back. Petals 3, free, lanceolate, one shorter. Fertile 
slamens 5 or 6, as long as the petals; anthers linear, 2 -celled, 
basifixed. Ovary 3-celled; ovules many, superposed; style 
long, filiform, 6-cleft at the stigmatose apex. Capsule oblong- 
trigonous, coriaceous, loculicidally 3-valved. Seeds oblong, 
with a lacerated arillus. — Trees with a naked trunk. Leaves large, 
oblong, with a long petiole, dilated into a broad sheath at the 
base. Panicle with many spreading boat-shaped branch-bracts. 
Flowers white, many in a cluster in the axils of the bracts. 
Fruit the size and shape of a small banana, but rigid and not 
eatable. 
Subgenus Urania —Perfect stamens 6. 
Subgenus Phenakospermum. — Perfect stamens 5. 
1. R. madagascariensis, Sonner. Voy. Ind. II, 223, tabs. 124-126 ; 
Jacq. Hort. Schoen. tab. 93; Flore des Serres, tab. 1355; 
Belg. Hort. IX, 31; Urania speciosa , Willd. ; U. Ravenala , 
L. C. Rich. Nova Act. XV, Suppl. tabs. 4-5. A tree, with a 
tall naked cylindrical trunk. Leaves 20-30 in a fan-shaped close 
distichous rosette ; petiole very stout, reaching a length of 
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