subulato lateralibus multo longiore, filamentis 5 cy- 
lindraceis. Grah. : 
Musa superba. Roxb. Pl. Corom. v. 3. t. 223. Fl. Indie. 
v. 1. p.667. Ed. Car. et Wall. v. 2. p. 489. Roem. et 
Schult. Syst. Veget. v. 7. p. 1294. Spreng. Syst. Ve- 
gel. v. 1. p. 833. 
I think there cannot be any reasonable doubt that the 
plant I have described is the M. superba of Roxpureu ; 
though the description of the size and form of the stem, as 
given by him, does not accord with our plant. His plant 
is described as thirteen feet high; ours, though remarkably 
vigorous, is only five; his has a most remarkable conical 
base, seven and a half feet in circumference close to the 
ground, and four and a half immediately under the leaves ; 
ours is hardly two feet and a half in circumference at the 
ground, and scarcely tapers at all. In almost every other 
respect the description of Roxsuren, where it does not 
contradict itself, is minutely applicable to our plant, very 
imperfectly indeed to his figure, which also differs greatly 
from the specimen I now describe. It is probable that the 
difference in the form of the stem arises from the age of the 
respective plants when they flowered. The figure in the 
Coromandel plants is perhaps taken from a plant which 
flowered in the Botanic Garden, Calcutta, thirty three 
months after the seeds from whence it sprung were sown ; 
our plant blossomed in the end of August, 1840, fourteen 
months after the seed from which it sprung was put into 
the ground. : 
Every one who has visited the Botanic Garden of Edin- 
burgh for some years past, has been struck with the brilliant 
success which has attended the cultivation of the many 
forms of Banana under the judicious management of Mr. 
M‘Nas, and the immence quantity of high-flavoured fruit 
which has been produced ; but nothing has afforded a 
Sreater triumph than the rapid perfection of this beautiful 
species from imported seed, though we are informed by Dr. 
Roxpuren that it does not yield a fruit which can be eaten, 
but one which resembles a dry capsule, rather than a berry. 
We learn from the same authority, that it is a native of the 
valleys in the southern parts of the Peninsula of India. In 
cultivation in the Botanic Garden, this, and all the varieties 
of fruit-bearing Bananas have been planted in large tubs 
containing extremely rich soil, have had much water, and 
been 
