Musa. PENTANDRIA MONOGYNITA, 663 
* 
seeded, Embryo central, and — furnished with a = 
perm. t 
1. M. sapientum, Willd. spec, iv. p. 894. 
Spadix drooping, spathes ovate, deciduous ; those of the 
female-herimaphrodite tlowers of the wild plant often wither 
and remain till the seeds are ripe, but in the ee varie- 
ties they are always deciduous, - 
Bata. Rheed, Mal. i, 17, t. 12,13, and 14, 
Musa, Ramph, Amb, v. 130. t. 60. 
Ram Kulla, Walli kulla,Ram Jakialia-kulla,are the names - 
the wild banana and plantain are known by at Chittagong 
where’ they’are found indigenous in the forests, and blossti 
during the rains, cod 
Beng. Kula, $ 1h 
Telinga. Aretti; and Komaretti the culevaned pion: 
The varieties of the banana, cultiviited over India, are 
very numerous, but fewer of the plantain, as I have hither- 
to obtained knowledge of only three ; whereas, I may safely 
say, not Jess than ten times that number of the former have 
come under my inspection. : 
Their duration, culture, habit, and natural character are 
already well known; I shall therefore confine myself to — 
(what I think,) the original wild Musa, from which I eon- 
clude uP ithe cultivated varieties of both plantain and bana - 
na , and which I consider as varieties of that one — 
species, 
In the course of two years, from the seed received frosi 
Chittagong, these attained to the usual height of the cultivat- 
- ‘ed sorts which is about ten or twelve feet. They blossoin at 
all seasons, though generally during the rains ; and ripen their 
seed in five or six months afterwards ; the plant then perishes 
down to the root, which long befor: this time bas produced 
other shoots; these continue to grow up, blossom, &c. in 
succession for several years. 
Their leaves are exactly as in the cultivated sorts, — ipl 
Pp4 
