Ate*3t. PENTANDIUA MONOGYNIA. o'G'J 



seeded. Embryo central, and amply furnished with a peris- 

 perm. 



L M. sapienlum. Willd. spec. iv.p. 894. 



Spadi.v drooping, snathes ovate, deciduous ; those of the 

 female-hermaphrodite flowers of the wild plant often wither 

 and remain till the seeds are ripe, but in the cultivated van 

 ties they are always deciduous. 



Bata. Rheed. Mat, i. 17. t. 12, 13, and 14. 



Musa. Rvmph. J] nib. v. 130. t. GO. 



Ram K/dhi,AValh" kulla.Ram Jakialiakulla, are the name- 

 the wild banana and plantain are known by at Chittagong 

 where they are found indigenous in the forests, and blossom 

 during- the rains. 



Beng. Km I a. 



Telinga. Aretti ; and Komaretti the cultivated plantain. 



The varieties of the banana, cultivated 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 less than ten times that number of the former have 

 come under my inspection. 



Their duration, culture, habit, and natural character are 

 already well known; 1 -hall therefore confine myself to 

 (what I think,) the original wild Musa, from which I con- 

 clude all the cultivated varieties of both plantain and bana- 

 na proceed, and which 1 consider as varieties of that one 

 species. 



In the course of two years, from the seed received from 

 Chittagong, these attained to the usual height of the cultivat- 

 ed sorts which is about ten or twelve feet. They blossom at 

 all seasons, though generally during- then ins ; and ripen their 

 seed in five or six months afterwards ; the plant then perishes 

 down to the root, which long- befora this time has produced 

 Other shoots; these continue to grow up, blossom, &c. in 

 succession for several year-. 



Their leaves are exactly as in the cultivated sorts. Spa 

 P P t 



