X, C6 Teodoro: Philippine Bananas 889 
from 10 to 13 cm in diameter at the base and reaching a height 
of from 3 to 6 m. 
The leaves are narrow-oblong, bright above and less glaucous 
beneath, firm in texture, often tinted with violet or white, 
deltoid at the base and round or acute at the apex. The length 
of a mature blade is from 162 to 200 cm and the width from 25 
to 30 em, the petiole measuring from 60 to 70 cm and slightly 
scalloped in cross section. 
The inflorescence is a small drooping spike with fertile flowers 
toward the base and sterile staminate flowers toward the apex. 
The basal bract or spathe is small and lanceolate, and as in 
other musas, does not generally produce flowers in its axit, it 
is dull brown inside, slightly shaded with pink and is smooth and 
green outside. It measures from 30 to 35 cm in length and from 
10 to 12 cm in width. It is firm and leathery in texture. 
The flowers are arranged in dense two-rowed fascicles, in 
three-ranked spirals. The flowers are small, measuring from 
3 to 4 em in length and from 0.7 to 0.8 cm in width. From 9 to 
10 fertile flowers occur in a fascicle and from 3 to 6 hands in 
an inflorescence. Perigonium long-tubular, divided to the base 
on one side, 5-toothed at the apex, the lobes usually decurved. 
Scale white, not scarious-margined, obovate with an acute tip; it 
is either two-thirds as long or often nearly as long as the perigo- 
nium. The stamens of the terminal flowers are never aborted. 
The perfect stamens are longer than the pistil; the filaments 
are usually shorter than the anthers. The stigma is oblong. 
The fruits are oblong, trigonous, very small, from 5 to 7 cm 
long, from 2 to 2.5 cm thick, narrowed to the apex, pedicel short. 
The position of the hands on the rachis is loose in arrangement, 
the fruits diverging from each other and standing at more or 
less nearly right angles to the rachis. They have a thick skin; 
the pulp is white and translucent when ripe. The ripe fruit is 
green. Seeds are abundant and turbinate. 
This species is noted throughout the world for the valuable 
fiber produced by the leaf sheaths. It is universally known in 
commerce as Manila hemp, and the plant is called abaca in the 
Philippines. The fiber obtained from abaca is chiefly used for 
the manufacture of rope; the inferior grades of the fiber take 
an important place as one of the finest materials for paper 
making. 
Many very distinct varieties of this species, which are as 
badly in need of careful botanical study as are the bananas, 
occur in the Philippines. 
