Tas. 7451. 
MUSA RuvBRA. 
Native of Pegu. 
Nat. Ord. Scrraminem.—Tribe Muszx. 
Genus Musa, Linn. ; (Benth. & Hook. f. Gen. Plant. vol. iii. p. 655.) 
‘Musa (Rhodochlamys) rubra; stolonifera, caudice gracili 6-7-pedali, foliis 
oblongo-lanceolatis acuminatis in petiolum gracilem angustatis, spica 
erecta densiflora, rachi puberula, bracteis late ovatis obtusis cymbiformibus 
non revolutis lete roseis apicibus aureis, fl. masec. unaquaque bractea 3-5 
sesqui-pollicaribus flavidis, calycis fere recti dentibus aureis, corolla 
calyce multo breviore late ovata acuminata, fl. fem. ovario trigono, 
fructibus sessilibus 3-pollicaribus fusiformi-trigonis, seminibus parvis 
depresso-globosis nitidis. 
M. rubra, Wail. ex Kurz in Journ. Agric. Hort. Soc. Ind. vol. xiv. Part I., p- 
301. Baker in Annals of Botany, vol. vii. (1893), p. 221. Kew Bulletin 
(1894), p. 258. 
It is only through cultivated specimens that an accurate 
knowledge of the species of Musa is likely to be obtained, 
for it is very difficult to determine their characters from 
dried specimens, and years must elapse before botanists, or 
collectors with descriptive powers, shall have found the 
opportunity of investigating them in their native, often 
most unhealthy, forests. In the case of M. rubra it is 
fortunate that materials are forthcoming for giving an 
account of its habit, flowers and fruit. Of these materials 
the first and second are derived from a specimen that Mr. 
Watson brought into fine flower and immature fruit in the 
Royal Gardens, Kew; and of the fruit, well preserved 
specimens, with ripe seeds collected by the late Dr. 
‘M‘Lelland, F.L.S., in Pegu, are preserved in the Her- 
barium of the Royal Gardens. And that these latter cer- 
tainly belong to M. rubra is assured partly by their being 
quite like what the cultivated plant has borne, and by 
being accompaniéd with some male flowers which have 
the characteristic small petal of M. rubra. 
M. rubra is first described in the work cited above by 
M. Kurz, from specimens collected by himself in Pegu. 
It must, however, have been discovered many years earlier, 
for Kurz has adopted a name of Wallich’s probably given 
DecemBER Ist, 1895, 
