Tas. 5975. 
MUSA SANGUINEA. 
Native of Assam. 
Nat, Ord. Musacem.—Tribe, Musra. 
Genus Musa, L.; (Endl. Gen, Pl. vol. i. p. 228). 
Musa sanguinea ; truncis 3—4 pedalibus confertis gracilibus coloratis 1 poll. 
_ diametro, foliis petiolatis lineari-oblongis acutis basi rotundatis v. 
cordatis subtus non glaucis, petiolo sub rufescente, scapo erecto breviter 
pedunculato, pedunculo rachique sanguineis, spica sub 6-pollicari 
erecto ovoideo, bracteis longitudine spice ovato-lanceolatis cymbifor- 
mibus subacutis sanguineis 3-floris demum revolutis caducis, ovarlis 
sessilibus, perianthii aurantiaci ovario subequilongi foliolo exteriore 
apice 5 lobo lobis orbiculatis exterioribus dorso sub apice corniculatis, 
foliolo interiore exteriore «quilongo apice truncato crenato, antheris 
subacutis, fructu oblongo turgido obtuse 3-4-angulato flavido rubro 
variegato, seminibus irregulariter cubicis tuberculatis. 
This beautiful species so closely resembles the well-known 
M. ornata, Roxb., of Pegu (M. rosacea, Ker in Bot. Reg. 
t. 706, not Jacq.) in every particular of the floral organs, 
that I long hesitated before concluding that it was new; but 
besides the remarkable difference in the colour of the bracts, 
which in J. ornata are pale lilac, the stems of this are much 
more slender and redder, the leaves are subacute, and 
the fruit is turgid, with larger, more cubical seeds than those 
represented in Roxburgh’s drawing. 
Musa sanguinea flowered in the Palm House of Kew in 
January of the present year ; it is a native of forests on the 
banks of the Booree Deling river in Upper Assam, where e 
-was discovered, in 1869, by our valued correspondent, Mr. G. 
Mann, of the Forest Department of India, so well known for 
his West African discoveries. Three species of Muse inhabit 
these forests, of which there is, besides that here figured, 
another at Kew, which has not yet flowered. My friend, the 
JULY Ist, 1872, 
