THE PLANTAIN AND BANANA TREES. 403 



" There is no necessity to refer, as Willdenow 

 does, the origin of all the cultivated varieties, 

 and of all the species enumerated by botanists, 

 to the Musa troglodytarum, a native of the Mo- 

 lucca Islands, as the parent stock. Our speci- 

 mens accorded with the descriptions given of 

 Musa sapientum. The seeds were in all respects 

 perfect, and apparently capable of propagating 

 the plant. Indeed, its existence on these islands, 

 so rarely frec|uented by man, and altogether un- 

 fit for cultivation, can be accounted for on no 

 other principle than the fertility of the seeds."* 



It is, however, curious (and whether it de- 

 pends on the fertility of the soil, I will leave for 

 the decision of others) that the Fehi, or Wild 

 Plantain tree, {Musa Fehi,) which is found 

 growing so luxuriantly about the declivities 

 of the mountains, has no seeds in its fruit. 

 Sometimes a few straggling plants are found in 

 the romantic valleys of the beautiful island of Ta- 

 hiti,* (and also others of the Polynesian Islands,) 

 propagating themselves by suckers : so dense 

 at some places have I seen them, that they ap- 

 pear almost united into one mass. The fruit 

 produced from this species is large, full, of a 

 dark orange colour, (which contrasts harmoni- 



* Finlayson's Journal of a Mission to Siam, &c. pp. 86, 87. 



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