Dr Graham*8 List of Fare Plants, 385 



intermedio subulate, lateralibus multo longiore, filamentis 5, cylin- 

 draceis. 



Musa superba. — Roxh. Coromandel, t. 223. Ibid. Fl. Indie, j. 607. 

 Idem Lib. Ed. Car. et Wall, ii. 489. Schultes Syst. Veget. vii. 1294. 



Description. — Stem scarcely any, the petioles spreading nearly from 

 the root upwards on all sides, and forming a pseudo-stem of nine inches 

 in diameter at the base of the specimen described. Floiver-stalk (about 

 5 feet high from the ground) cemuous. Leaves (5 feet long, by 1 foot 

 7 inches broad) lanceolate-elliptical, slightly unequal at t!ie base, of 

 lively green on both sides, rather darker above, with a very narrow red 

 edge, middle rib very strong, semicylindrical behind, Avith a deep round- 

 ed groove in front, transverse veins waved especially near the base ; 

 petioles of the lower leaves fully one-third of the length of these, and of 

 the same shape as the middle rib, slightly clasping stem at their origin ; 

 floral leaves gradually smaller till the petioles pass into lai^e ovate 

 bracts, the lower of which only retain a small portion of the leafy 

 expansion at the apex, but these, like the others, spread in a roseate 

 manner, green without, red-brown within, forming, after a few only 

 have expanded, a large elegant cemuous imbricated circular basin, of 

 a foot in diameter, in the centre of which is the cordato-ovate mass of 

 unexpanded bracts, sun'oundcd by the flowers, which are half con- 

 cealed among the imbricated expanded bractese. Those are persistent, 

 and always concave forwards, never reflexed ; a few of the lower are 

 empty, next are several with female flowers, the stamens being abortive, 

 and then follow many, expanding in slow succession, deciduous, and co- 

 vering flowers having the stamens fully developed, but with the pistil 

 incomplete. Perianth single, superior, bilabiate ; the upper lip (1^ inch 

 long) coriaceous, linear, erect, revolute in the sides, reflected at the apex, 

 ultimately 3-partite, with two slender linear internal segments laid 

 along the fissures, the segments usually twisted together ; lower lip 

 embraced by the base of the upper, loss than half its length, membra- 

 nous, diaphanous, colourless, deflected, 3-lobed, the centre lobe subu- 

 late, and very slender, the lateral lobes scarcely half the length of the 

 other, ovate, subacute, spreading. Filaments 5, epigynous, round, stout, 

 erect^ parallel to each other, and ranged in a row within the upper lip 

 of the perianth. A large quantity of transparent, colourless, deli- 

 quescent jelly is discharged from the faux, between the style and the 

 lower lip of the perianth. Male Flower. — Anthers twice as long as the 

 filaments, their apices reflexed, and projecting beyond the upper lip of 

 the perianth, bilobular, the lobes narrow, red, laid along the face of the 

 flat linear connective towards its edges, and bursting anteriorly ; pol- 

 len yellow, abundant, granules spherical. Pistil abortive, style subu- 

 late, equal in length to the filaments, and having a small dry stigma. 

 Female Flower. — Filaments rather shorter than in the male flower, with 

 scarcely any appearance of abortive anthers on their conical summits. 

 Stigma large, white, slimy, capitate, irregularly and incompletely lobed. 

 Style stout, erect, twice the length of the abortive stamens, and two- 

 thirds of the length of the upper lip of the perianth. Gertiien angular, 

 3-celled. Oviiles very numerous, globular, shortly pedicellate, their 

 attachment being in two rows to a central placenta in each cell. 



I think there cannot be any reasonable doubt that the plant I have de- 

 scribed is the M. mperba of Roxbui^h ; though the description of the 

 size and form of the stem, as drawn by him, does not accord with our 

 plant. His plant is described as 13 feet high ; ours, though remark- 

 ably vigorous, is only 5 ; his has a most remarkable conical base, 7^ 

 feet in circumference close to the ground, and 4 J immediately under 

 the leaves \ ours is scarcely 2^^ feet in circumference at the ^ound^ 



