128 
Monocotyledons with Petaloid Flozvers — Bromeliacece. 
of 6 segments, of which the 3 outer are sepaloid, the 3 inner petaloid, stamens 6, and ovary 3-celled, wholly or 
partially inferior. 
Most of the species are stemless herbs, frequently epiphytal, with stiff, sheathing, scurfy, often spinosely serrate 
leaves and spicate racemose or panicled, often handsomely coloured, inflorescence. 
USES, &c.—The most important species of the Order is Pine-apple (. Ananassa sativa ), much cultivated in 
stoves for its delicious collective fruit which results from a dense spike of flowers, the whole of which, flowers, bracts 
and axis of the spike, becomes succulent. The seeds are not developed in the cultivated fruit, and the species is 
propagated by separation of the crown of empty bract-leaves borne by the axis of the infructescence immediately 
above the fruit. The Pine-apple and an allied species afford a fine and tenacious fibre used for textile purposes. 
SC IT AMINES.—A large Tropical Natural Order, common to both Hemispheres, related to the above, 
differing from the Orders enumerated in their irregular flowers with but a single anther-bearing stamen, the anther 
2-celled in the Sub-order Zingibere/E (Gingers), 1 -celled in the Sub-order Maranteal (Arrowroots) ; or with the 
stamens varying from 1 to 6 in number in the Sub-order MUSE^E. 
USES, &c. — The Sub-order ZlNGlBERE/E is characterised by aromatic stimulant properties, especially marked 
in ginger, the dried rhizome of Zingiber officinale , cultivated extensively in the Tropics of both Hemispheres. To 
this Sub-order belong turmeric ( Curcuma Longa') of Tropical Asia, the powdered rhizome of which is used as a 
condiment, as a dye, and also as a test for the presence of alkalies ; zedoary, the aromatic tubers of Curcuma 
Zedoaria employed medicinally ; cardamoms, the fruit of Indian species of Elettaria; and Grains of Paradise, the 
pungent seeds of Amomum Meleguetta of West Tropical Africa. 
The Sub-order Marantee is destitute of the pungency of Zingibereae. It includes arrowroot (. Maranta 
arundinacea) of the West Indies, the rhizomes of which abound in a fine farina, and Tous-les-mois ( Canna edulis) f 
another species affording a farina, chiefly used by invalids. The leaf-fibres and petioles of various Maranteae are 
much used for matting, basket-wdrk, and the like in their native countries. 
To MuSEyE belong the Banana (Musa Sapientum) and Plantain (M. paradisiaca), two closely-related plants, 
yielding fruits of the first importance to the natives of tropical countries. They are very extensively planted 
throughout the humid hotter parts of both Hemispheres, though probably not indigenous in the New World. Manila 
hemp is a tenacious fibre afforded by Musa textilis of the Philippine Islands. 
