Traveller's Tree (Ravenala madagascariensis, or Urania speciosa), a remarkable plant of the natural order Scitamineæ, a native of Madagascar, and forming a characteristic feature of the scenery of many parts of that island. The stem resembles that of the plantain-tree, but sends out leaves only on two opposite sides, like a great expanded fan. The lower leaves drop off as the stem grows, and in an old tree the lowest leaves are sometimes 30 feet from the ground. A tree often has twenty or twenty-four leaves, the stalk of each leaf being 6 or 8 feet long, and the blade 4 or 6 feet more. The blade of the leaf is oblong, bright green, and shining. The fruit is woody, capsular three-celled, the seeds are arranged in two rows in each cell, and are surrounded by a pulpy blue aril. Forty or fifty fruits grow in a bunch, and three or four bunches may be seen at once on the tree. The leaves are much used for thatch, and for many other purposes, and the leaf-stalks for the partitions, and often even for the walls of houses. It received its popular name, Arbre des voyageurs, first from the French on account of the stores of pure water found in the large cup-like sheaths of its leaf-stalks, and which is readily obtained by tapping the sheaths at the base. There is a similar tree called 'Traveller's Fountain' in the Malay Peninsula.