Ravenala
(said to be the native name of the plant in Madagascar). SYN. Urania. Including Phenakospermum. ORD. Scitamineae. A genus comprising a couple of species of noble, stove plants, one of which is a native of North Brazil and Guiana, and the other indigenous in Madagascar. Flowers many in a spathe, large, on very short pedicels, shortly racemose; sepals three, long, narrow, acuminate; petals three, the outer one shorter and slightly complicate, the lateral ones long, similar to the sepals, but smaller; stamens five, slightly shorter than the petals; scapes or peduncles in the upper axils; bracts spathaceous, many, boat-shaped, acuminate, bifariously spreading. Leaves very large, clustered, flabellately bifarious; petioles long and concave at base, scarcely sheathed. Stem sometimes short, with sub-radical leaves, sometimes erect and woody (as high as 30ft.), built up of the sheaths of the leaf-stalks, the other parts of the leaves heaving fallen off. R. madagascariensis is called by the French the Traveller's Tree, probably on account of the water which is stored up in the large, cup-like sheaths of the leafstalks; its seeds are edible. For culture, see Musa. P. guianensis (Guiana). fl. white; spathes seven, boat-shaped, deflexed, 1ft. to 1 1/2ft. long; scape tall. l. distichous, oval-elongated, as long as the petioles. h. 15ft. Brazil and Guiana, 1848.
P. madagascariensis (Madagascar). fl. white, clustered in alternate, boat-shaped spathes, 7in. long; thyrse axillary, 1 1/2ft. long. l. flabellately disposed, long-stalked, sheathed at base, alternate. Caudex tall, arboreous. Madagascar. (F. d. S. 1355; I. H. 1860, 234.) SYN. Urania speciosa.