Scitamineae
A natural order of usually perennial herbs, with creeping rhizomes, broadly dispersed over the warmer regions of the globe. Flowers hermaphrodite or rarely polygamous, irregular, naked or bracteate, spicate, racemose, or panicled; perianth normally double, superior, the outer part calycine, the inner corolla-like, the segments variously connate, or one or other deficient; ovary inferior, three, rarely one or two-celled; stamens sometimes five, equal, free, the sixth deficient or small, often only one perfect, and the rest changed into irregular, polymorphous, variously connate, petaloid staminodes; style terminal, elongated, undivided. Fruit crowned by the persistent calyx, or the whole perianth deciduous, three-celled, or by abortion one or two-celled, sometimes fleshy and indehiscent, sometimes loculidally three-valved; seeds one or many. Leaves variously disposed, the petiole usually forming a sheath, the blade sessile or petiolate above the sheath, often large. Arrow root, the starch derived from the rhizomes of Maranta arundinacea, is recommended for its digestibility. "The root of ginger (Zingiber officinale) . . . . is considered in India to be anti-scorbutic and aphrodisiac . . . . The fruits of Amomum, called Cardamoms, are employed as a condiment, and esteemed for their stomachic qualities. . . . The Banana and Plantain fruits (Musa paradisiaca and M. sapientum) afford an agreeable, sweet, farinaceous food, and a refreshing drink" (Decaisne and Le Maout). Several other species are of great economic value. Canneae, Maranteae, Museae, and Zingibereae, are regarded by the authors of the "Genera Plantarum" as tribes of Scitamineoe. The order embraces thirty-six genera and about 450 species. Among well-known examples the following may be cited: Alpinia, Canna, Curcuma, Hedy chium, Maranta, Musa, and Zingiber.