268 MUSA TEXTILIS. 
Teak even will not grow, owing to the wet at this period, The 
Palms are very capricious: some have succeeded admirably, as 
Oreodoxa regia, sent by Loddiges, Latania Borbonica, and some 
Caryotas ; these, however, are individuals, forming no great features 
in a garden of sixty acres, though very handsome in themselves. 
Upon the whole the Rhoda Gardens are a noble project, more 
interesting to a botanist than ornamental, according to European 
taste. Everywhere you turn you are greeted by some English 
or well-known exotic, struggling to accommodate itself to Egyptian 
bondage, or rebelliously resenting all poor Mr. Traill’s kind atten- 
tions, and doing the worst a slave can do—dying on the spot, and 
breaking his master’s heart. 
Some accounts of the Rhoda Gardens are published in the 
Gardeners’ Chronicle by Mr. Traill himself, which I should have 
liked to have perused previous to my visit, but had no opportu- 
nity: they are, however, worth your referring to. 
(To be continued.) 
Musa TEXTILIS. 
We are sure the following account, by Thomas Mc. Micking, Esq» 
lately of Manila, of the manufacture of a fibre called Manila 
Hemp,* afforded by a species of Plantain (Musa teatilis), and 
which is now imported into this country in large quantities, 
be read with interest. It is extracted from a paper read before 
the Philosophical Society of Glasgow, February 1848, and kindly 
communicated to us by W. Gourlie, Esq. 7 
* At first sight the Plantain tree from which the Manila Hemp 
is made, appears not to differ from other Muse. The fruit 15 
eaten, but is small, hardly exceeding two inches in length, when the 
seeds arrive at complete ripeness, The uses of this variety of Plantain 
are great : from it are manufactured ropes, cable, and woven cloth o 
EA very beautiful show] made’ of this attic, and ebundanée of thé de i8 ^ 
ferent states, are deposited in the Museum of the Royal Gardens of Kew. .—— 
g 
