MISSOURI BOTANICAL GARDEN BULLETIN 109 
THE BANANA 
The luxuriance and thrift of the vegetation of the moist 
tropics is perhaps nowhere better exemplified in the Garden 
than in the collection of banana plants at present growing in 
the banana dome adjoining the orchid house. The thick 
fleshy trunks and the vivid green leaves of enormous size 
impress one as the very embodiment of tropical profusion. 
Although planted less than a year ago, some of the plants 
have already reached the roof of the house and a specimen 
of the red banana, Musa sapientum var. rubra, is bearing 
leaves three feet wide and ten feet long, not including the 
long petiole, or leaf stalk. A specimen of Musa rhodochlamys 
is in flower and should be observed from time to time in 
order to follow the development of the fruit. Also a plant 
of Musa Martini is just coming into flower. 
The banana appears to have been one of the very earliest 
plants subjected to cultivation. Although a number of wild 
forms grow at the present time in many parts of the tropics, 
it is questionable whether any of these represent the an- 
cestral type of the cultivated banana. Indeed, it is supposed 
by some that all of the present-day wild bananas are only 
cultivated forms which at some time or other escaped from 
cultivation, the ancestors of the cultivated banana having 
become extinct. It is generally supposed that the banana 
originated in the Tit Malayan region, where man is first 
thought to have attained a high degree of civilization. The 
fruits of the wild bananas are composed almost entirely of 
seeds with only a very small amount of sweet pulp, and it 
is therefore believed that the plants originally had but lit- 
tle value as fruit producers. Instead, it seems probable that 
the plants were first grown for the starchy roots and even for 
the tender heart of the stem, both of which are still utilized 
as food in certain localities. 
The present-day cultivated banana fruit is seedless and 
contains a large amount of palatable pulp. The seedless habit 
seems to have been established a very Vis time ago, and coin- 
cident with it the increased development of pulp probably 
appeared ; it would seem, therefore, that the banana became 
prized for its fruits rather than for its roots and stems at a 
very early date. Just how the sien ie | seedless but very 
pulpy banana has been derived from the originally abundant 
seed-producing varieties is much in dispute. By some it is 
considered that the lack of seed development has resulted 
from hybridization, as is not infrequently the case in culti- 
vated a bas whereas others suppose that the seedless habit 
has resulted from the continued selection and vegetative prop- 
