6 VAUGHAN MacCAUGHEY 



edly the same as Hua-moa; he says "It is probable that the two varieties are not 

 distinct, the differences which have given rise to the two names being due to the 

 immediate effect of soil and cultivation." 



Nou. An obscure variety belonging to the Po-po-ulu group. It is very 

 short-stemmed, only 3 to 5 feet high, and is said to do well in windy places where 

 other kinds will not thrive. 



Poni. A variety belonging to the Maoli group. It is similar to the Maoli, 

 but with purple petioles and midribs, and a reddish stem. The leaf-blades are 

 sometimes blotched with red or purple. The bunch and the fruit are both shorter 

 than in the Maoli. Also called O'a. 



Po-po-ulu. A well-known variety of cooking banana, common in the Hono- 

 lulu markets. The plant is of medium height. The stem is green with a slight 

 tendency to pinkish tints on the petioles. The scape is rather slender; the bunch . 

 itself is of medium size. There are 8 to 10 fruits per hand. The fruits are short, 

 thick, rounded, and blunt at the ends. This banana is of good quality when 

 cooked; the flesh is firm and sweet. Other members of the Po-po-ulu group are: 

 Ka-io, Hua moa, Moa, Nou, and Lahi. 



Pua-pua-nui. A variety of the Iho-lena group. This one has the largest 

 stem or trunk of the group; it often reaches a height of nearly 30 feet. In other 

 features the plant is similar to the Ha'a; the bunch, however, is smaller and 

 shorter than the Ha'a. The fruits diverge at the ends. This variety is also 

 called Pu'u-hala, Ka-pua, and Maoli-ili lahi-lahi. It is frequent on the windward 

 sides of Hawaii, Maui, and Oahu. 



Puhi. A variety of the Maoli group. The distinguishing feature of this 

 variety is the great length of the fruit as compared with the small diameter. 

 The fruit is also somewhat curved or twisted, and thus the varietal name fanci- 

 fully compares it to the eel "puhi." 



All of the native bananas are seedless, and could have reached 

 the islands only through human agency. The vegetative shoots 

 or ''suckers" are quickly killed by sea-water, and could not 

 have been carried by the ocean currents in the manner in which 

 many impervious-tegumented seeds are carried. The banana 

 was undoubtedly introduced by the primitive Hawaiians, to- 

 gether with numerous other plants of economic value, from 

 their home in the South Pacific. - In fact, there is abundant 

 evidence to show that the Polynesians, from their first migra- 

 tions out of the mysterious south-Asian "Hawa-iki" home-land, 

 took with them such plants as the bread-fruit, sweet potato, 

 and banana, and such animals as the dog, hog, and fowl. These 

 and other more distinctively Polynesian plants and animals are 



2 See MacCaughey, Vaughan, The food plants of the ancient Hawaiians. The 

 Scientific Monthly, 4: 75-80, 1917. 



