224 Select Plants for Industrial C^dture 



temperate zone, where under careful attention they are likely to 

 mature their fruit with regularity. They require rich and humid 

 soil. Plantain-meal is prepared by simply reducing the dried pulp to 

 powder; it is palatable, digestible and nourishing. M. sapientum,. L, 

 the ordinary Banana or Sweet Plantain is a variety. It is one of the 

 most important plants among those yielding nutritious delicious 

 fruits. The stem is spotted; bracts green inside. The leaves 

 and particularly the stalks and the stems of this and other species 

 of Musa can be utilized for producing a fibre similar to Manilla- 

 hemp, though not so strong. The fruit of this species is 

 used chiefly unprepared; it is generally of a yellow color. Numerous 

 varieties are distinguished. Under favorable circumstances as 

 much as a hundredweight of fruit is obtained from a plant annually 

 in tropical climes. At Caraccas, where the temperature is seldom 

 much above or below 70 F., the plantain- and banana-plants are 

 very productive, being loaded with fruits 12 to 15 inches long, 

 on mountains about 5,000 feet high. In the dry Murray-regions 

 of South-Eastern Australia the winter-temperature seems too low for 

 the successful development of the plants except on sheltered spots; 

 but bananas still ripen under the shelter of limestone-cliffs as far 

 south as Swan-River in West- Australia. The plant matures its fruit 

 also yet in the Canary-Islands. The banana requires infinitely 

 less care within its geographic latitudes than the potato; contains 

 along with much starch amply protein-compounds. The preparation 

 of starch from bananas is lucrative, as the yield is copious. Many 

 Indian populations live very extensively or almost exclusively on this 

 fruit. In hot countries the tall Musas are sometimes reared as nurse- 

 plants. 



Musa simiarum, Rumph.* (M. corniculata, Loureiro; M. acummata, Colla.) 

 From Malacca to the Sunda-Islands. About half a hundred marked 

 varieties of this species, called mainly Pisangs in India, are under 

 cultivation there, especially on the Archipelagus, while M. sapientum 

 occurs wild more frequently on the mainland. Though the latter is 

 principally cultivated on the Indian continent, yet it never equals in 

 delicacy the cultivated forms of M. simiarum, the fruit of which 

 sometimes attains a length of 2 feet (Kurz). 



Musa textilis, Nees. 



Philippine-Islands. This species furnishes the widely utilized 

 Manilla-rope fibre; the plant was introduced first into Australia by 

 the author, and may thrive in subtropic regions. It likes volcanic 

 forest-land. Much of the fibre is exported to America for paper. 

 About 1 Ib. of fibre is annually obtained from each plant 

 (Simmonds). 



Musa troglodytarum, Linn. (H. uranoscopos, Rumph.) 



India, and apparently indigenous also in the Fiji and other islands 

 of the Pacific Ocean. The fruit-stalk of this species stands upright; 

 the edible fruits are small, reddish or orange-colored; pulp gamboge- 



