Select Plants for Industrial Culture and 



elevation [Dr. Treub]. 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 

 utilised 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 up to 5,000 

 feet. 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 will 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 fibre of any kind of Musa can be turned to some 

 account, though the value is various. 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 some- 

 times reared as nurse-plants. Jamaica alone exported during 1885 

 bananas to the value of 130,000, this culture still increasing there 

 [Dr. Masters]. The import merely from Fiji into Port Jackson 

 has been 30-40,000 bunches in a fortnight [M. Macgillivray]. The 

 American " fruit-drier " can advantageously be employed also for 

 the exsiccating of Bananas. Mr. W. Reynolds, of Daintree-River, 

 Northern Queensland, has of late years successfully started banana- 

 drying for export to the European markets. It is the small-fruited 

 variety, which is especially eligible for this purpose ; thus prepared 

 it rivals dried figs, raisins and dates on the dessert-table. 



IKEusa simiarum, Humph.* (M. corniculata, Loureiro; M.acuminata, 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 oil 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, Nee.* 



Philippine-Islands. This species furnishes the widely utilised 

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

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



