326 
BROMELIAOEJS. 
petals 3 purplish-blue lingulate deciduous united for a space above the 
ovary. Ananas. 
Order XCIII. SCIT AMINES. 
Flowers hermaphrodite. Perianth distinctly dichlamydeous. Sepals 
3, membranous. Petals 3, often irregular. Stamen solitary, petaloid, 
with a 1- or 2-celled anther. Staminodes petaloid, various in shape 
and number, the one opposite the fertile stamen (labellum) larger 
than the rest. Ovary inferior, 3-celled ; ovules mauy in a cell ; style 
filiform; stigma capitate. Fruit capsular or baccate, crowned by the 
raarcescent sepals. Seeds with two layers of albumen, often arillate ; 
embryo axile. — Herbs with often stout creeping root-stocks, large 
membranous leaves and showy fugitive very irregular flowers. Distrib. 
Tropics of both hemispheres. Species 500. 
Anthers 2-celled. Flowers in heads on special stems. 
Posterior petal large and galeate 1 . Amomum. 
Petals all small and uniform * Nicolaia. 
Anthers 1 -celled. Flowers in lax branched spikes on leafy stems * Canna. 
1. AMOMUM, Linn. 
Calyx spathaceous, 3-toothed. Corolla 3-lobed, the side segments 
lanceolate, the top one larger and galeate. Staminodes represented by 
a large labellum with two processes at the base. Filament petaloid ; 
connective produced in a crest beyond the 2-celled anther. Fruit 
indehiscent or dehiscing by three valves. — Herbs with a creeping 
root-stock, a long leaf-stem, a short special flower-stem and showy 
flowers. Distrib. Tropics of Old World. Species 30. 
1. A. Daniellii, Hook.Jil. Bot. Mag. t. 4fiQi,Jide Manbury. Root- 
stock thick, creeping. Leaf-stem 6-10 feet high, Leaves short- 
petioled, oblong, acute, membranous, above a foot long. Flower-stem 
^-1 foot long, clothed with obtuse, scariose sheathing bracts. Flowers 
few in a head, each subtended by a membranous bract, which they 
greatly overtop. Calyx spathaceous, slit and 3-toothed. Corolla 3- 
lobed, deep red, the side segments lanceolate, the upper one twice as 
large and galeate. Labellum yellow, obovate-cuneate, 1^-2 in. long. 
Anther with a 3-lobed crest. Fruit as large as a hen’s egg, deep red, 
obscurely trigonous. Seeds oblong, enveloped in a whitish aril. A. 
angustifolium, Manbury in Linn. Journ. xiii. 155, not of Sonnerat. A. 
nemorosum, Bojer , Hort. Maur. 327 (name only). A. Clusii, Bot. Mag. 
t. 5250 (variety with yellow flowers). 
Mauritius, in swamps of the Pouce range, etc. Seychelles, in marshy ground 
in the forests of Mahe, Some , 596 ! Also Madagascar and Tropical Africa. 
Lonyouze , Zedoaire du pays. 
* Nicolaia imperialism Horan. Prod. Scit. 32, t. 1 (Alpinia magnifica. 
