MUSACEjE. 
371 
on axile ; ovules many in a cell ; style simple. Fruit capsular or 
accate. Seeds copiously albuminous. — Gigantic herbs or trees, 
w ith petioled large oblong leaves with parallel veins diverg- 
ing from a stout midrib. Disteib. Tropics of both hemispheres. 
Species 50. 
Perianth-limb 2-lobed ; fruit fleshy * Musa. 
Perianth-limb 6-lobed ; fruit capsular * Ravenala. 
* MUSA, Linn. 
Perianth spathaceous, marcescent, slit down to the ovary into two 
unequal lobes, one representing 5 segments. Stamens epigynous, 
the linear basifixed anther as long as the filiform filament, 6 or one 
abortive. Style filiform ; stigma obtusely 3-lobed. Fruit fleshy, in- 
dehiscent, oblong-cylindrical. Disteib. Tropics of the Old World. 
Species 20. 
The Plantain, Musa paradisaica , Linn. ; Trew, Ehret. tab. 18-20 ; 
Bed. Lil. tab. 443, a native of Tropical Asia, but now univer- 
sally cultivated through the torrid zone, is casually subspontane- 
ous. It has a green trunk 10-20 feet high, oblong leaves 4-5 feet 
long, a nodding spike 3 or 4 feet long with 4 to 8 half-whorls of 
fertile flowers subtended by oblong acute violet purple bracts, a 
perianth-limb about an inch long with two unequal lobes, and a 
curved cylindrical-trigonous fruit 6-12 inches long, at first green, 
afterwards becoming yellow with a tough skin and not fit to eat 
without cooking. The Banana, Musa sapientum, Linn. ; Trew, 
Ehret. tab. 21-23, which is not more than a variety of the same 
species, has usually a stem variegated with purple, leaves often edged 
with a purple line, lower bracts green on the inside, and a shorter 
straighter less angular fruit 3-6 inches long with yellowish-red flesh, a 
thinner skin, a more fragrant odour and fit to eat without cooking. 
Bojer, Hort. Maur. p. 332, describes ten varieties of M. paradisaica 
which are grown in Mauritius. 
* Ravenala madagascariensis , Sonnerat Yoy. ii. 223, tab. 124-6; 
Jacq. Hort. Schoen. t. 93 (Urania speciosa, Willd . ; Bojer , Hort. 
Maur. 333), the Travellers’ tree of Madagascar, is subspontaneous m 
Mauritius about the Mare aux Yacouas, and occurs also in Kodriguez. 
It differs from Musa in habit by having a tall simple woody 
trunk and distichous leaves. It has axillary solitary spreading dis- 
tichously-branched clusters of flowers, ovate acute navicular coriaceous 
spathes, containing about ten flowers each, an oblique perianth-limb 
6-8 inches long slit down to the base into six linear segments of which 
one is smaller than the rest, six very long basifixed anthers, a cylindrical 
style as long as the limb with a clavate stigma, an elliptic capsule 
3-4 inches long with loculicidal dehiscence, and umbilicate seeds 
enveloped in a blue pulpy arillus. Ravenal or Arbre du voyaqeur. 
2 b 2 
