MANILA HEMP 157 



recent years, some success has been obtained with 

 Manila hemp in Java. The fibre produced in this 

 island is not of so fine a quality as that of the higher 

 grades produced in the Philippines but is nevertheless 

 quite suitable for the market. It is considered that 

 the cultivation of this product might perhaps have a 

 good future in Java as a native industry. 



THE MANILA HEMP PLANT 



Manila hemp is derived from the sheathing leaf- 

 stalks of Musa textilisy a plant of the banana or plan- 

 tain family. The plant has a branching under- 

 ground stem or rhizome which bears numerous small 

 roots. From time to time, this rhizome throws up 

 erect stems so that an old plant may bear from ten 

 to twenty-five shoots of various ages growing in a 

 cluster. The apparent aerial stem is composed of 

 from sixteen to twenty-five broad, overlapping leaf- 

 bases (or, rather, sheathing petioles) which grow up, 

 one inside another, until they form a kind of trunk, 

 12 to 1 6 inches in diameter. The real stem arises 

 through the middle of this structure and is usually 

 not more than about 3 inches thick. When the 

 formation of the sheaths is completed, the flower-bud 

 develops and puts forth a thick axis or spike on 

 which the flowers are produced in clusters ; the 

 clusters nearer the base bear pistillate or female 

 flowers, whilst those nearer the summit bear the 

 staminate or male flowers. The fruit is smaller than 

 that of most bananas ; it is hard and green, unfit for 

 food, and contains numerous large, black seeds. In 

 general appearance, the plant resembles the ordinary 

 fruiting banana, but the leaves are paler in colour, 

 narrower and more pointed, whilst the stems are of 

 a purplish-red colour with broad, green ^treaks. 



CULTIVATION 



Climate. Since the Manila hemp plant bears 

 enormous leaves and only very short roots, it requires 

 Considerable humidity both of the atmosphere and of 



