54 THE VICTORIAN NATURALIST. 



occur only sparingly on the Maclay-Coast (that part of the north 

 coast, which stretches from Cape Croisilles to Cape King William), 

 but is said to be very frequent near the south-eastern point of 

 New Guinea and on the Louisiade Archipelagos." Towards the 

 end of last year Sir William Macgregor saw 35 miles up on the 

 Mambare-River this same Musa. In reference to this his Ex- 

 cellency writes me under date 15th December, 1895 : — " I had a 

 specimen brought on board the Merrie England, where I invited 

 Mr. W. Fitzgerald to study it. He undertook to send you his 

 description of it. I enclose a sketch of the fruit by Mr. Winter. 

 The bunch of fruits would have weighed nearly 1 cwt. It is not 

 edible. The seeds are used for making beads. It is a fine 

 handsome plant." 



From Mr. Fitzgerald's notes, forwarded by him from Cooktovvn 

 on the 7th February, 1896, and now given with some alterations 

 in the organography words, I extract as essential the following : — 

 " I did not collect the specimens of the Banana, which grow on 

 the Mambare-River. Mr. Butterworth on the request of Sir 

 William Macgregor brought a spike on board. Height 15-25 

 feet. Stem stout. Leaves 8 to 10 feet in length, 2-3 feet across. 

 Spike (thyrsoid raceme) pendulous, 3^ feet long by the same (in 

 largest) circumference (as regards the fruit masses seen). Bracts 

 broadly ovate (very acute according to Mr. Winter's delineation) 

 9-12 inches long, bright-green. 



Flowers numerous, %-i inch in length, white, the lobes of the 

 calyx firm, linear with sharply recurved margins ; corolla-lobes 

 small, membranous ; stigma trifid ; fruit about 3 inches long by 

 \y 2 inches in diameter, outside pale-yellow; pulp whitish, 

 streaked with purple. Seeds 24-28 ; testa bony, black. Albument 

 mealy, bitter. The fruit is not eaten by the natives, known to 

 them by the name Tubi. 



From a necklace, made of these seeds and transmitted by the 

 Lieutenant-Governor, may be added, that the seeds attain the 

 length of half an inch and are often semi-ovate in form. The 

 necklaces are called by the Autochthones gudugudu. Mr. 

 Winter's drawing (of much reduced size) indicates the flowers 

 and fruits forming a total mass of ovate-conic form with crowded 

 bracts. 



M. Fitzalani, as here recognized, differs from M. calosperma 

 already in the comparative paucity of flowers at least within some 

 of the bracts and in pulpless fruits with much smaller seeds. 

 M. Hillii, which through Mr. Berthoud is now known also from 

 the Johnstone-River, is more widely separated by still more 

 gigantic size, by a raceme erect at least during flowering time, 

 as well illustrated in Sir Joseph Hooker's Botanic Magazine, 7,401 

 (1895), by its longer and less acute bracts, by yellowish flowers, 

 by proportionately broader fruits with yellow pulp and smaller 

 seeds. 



