39$ GENERAL REVIEW. 



before observed, any systematic course of intercrossing is next 

 to impossible, unless, indeed, the fruit can be partially severed 

 i.e., slit open when the open orifice indicates the perfection 

 of the flowers and the foreign pollen introduced, after which 

 the fruit might be held together by an elastic band until the 

 margins united again ; or it might be possible to insert the 

 point of a fine brush or feather, moistened with honey or nectar, 

 and charged with pollen. The variety of fruits obtained when 

 seeds of imported Figs are sown seems to point to hybridisa- 

 tion having previously been effected at some time or other, 

 unless, indeed, we can ascribe this seminal variation to a long 

 course of cultivation. 



THE BANANA FAMILY (Afusacece). 



A small genus of large-leaved plants, principally natives of 

 the Cape of Good Hope, Madagascar, and pretty generally 

 throughout the tropics, where Musas are largely grown for 

 their edible fruits under the names of Plantains and Bananas. 

 A dwarf-growing Banana from China is often grown in our hot- 

 houses as a choice fruiting -plant under the name of Musa 

 Cavendishii. The principal genera are : Musa, Strelitzia, 

 Heliconia, and Ravenala or Urania, the " Travellers' tree " of 

 Madagascar. Strelitzias and the edible Musas are readily pro- 

 pagated by separating the offsets or suckers, which are freely 

 produced. Musa ensete does not throw up suckers, but is 

 readily raised from imported seeds, which, like those of Rav- 

 enala, germinate freely in a genial bottom-heat. Heliconias 

 may be propagated by division, or if seeds can be procured, 

 they germinate readily in a close heated frame. Musa Caven- 

 dishii and M. sapientum are the most useful as fruit-bearing 

 plants in this country ; and it is interesting to notice that in 

 the tropics, where they have been long cultivated, there are 

 numerous varieties differing in the size, colour, and flavour of 

 their fruits. The varieties having short plump fruits, with deli- 

 cate rose-tinted pulp, are the best, and are as much sought after 

 as are the finer Pears or Grapes here in our gardens at home. 

 The pendulous flower-spike of Musa, with its unisexual female 

 flowers above the male blossoms, seems a simple provision to 

 favour cross-fertilisation with other varieties occasionally; and it 

 would be worth while to try the effect of pollen of M. sapientum 

 on M. Cavendishii, and vice versa, whenever and wherever this 

 is practicable. It is singular to observe that the edible-fruited 

 Musas, like the Pine-apple, rarely bear fertile seeds a state of 



