CHAPTER XXXIV 

 SHORT DESCRIPTION OF SPECIES OF MUSA 



IT may be useful to some cultivators to have a handy 

 list of all the known species of Musa, with short descriptions 

 and indications of their value. These may possibly be 

 sufficient to enable them to identify any unnamed kind. 

 Reference may be made for fuller information to Baker's 

 paper in " Annals of Botany," vii. 205 (1893), to the 

 Kew Bulletin for 1894, and to Schumann in Engler's 

 Pflanzenreich iv. (1900). All new species, not included 

 in the above, have a reference to the original descriptions 

 appended to the name. The terms made use of in the 

 descriptions are those used in the explanation of the 

 flowering system of the banana in Chapter I. 



SUBDIVISIONS OF THE GENUS MUSA 



I. Subgenus Eumusa. Trunk cylindrical. Flowers 

 many to a bract. Free petal ovate-acuminate. Bracts 

 green, brown, or dull violet. Fruit usually edible. 



II. Subgenus Rhodochlamys. Trunk cylindrical. Flowers 

 few to a bract. Free petal linear. Bracts bright-coloured, 

 often red. Fruit usually not edible. 



III. Subgenus Physocaulis. Trunk bottle - shaped. 

 Flowers many to a bract. Free petal usually tricuspidate. 

 Fruit not edible. 



I. SPECIES OF SUBGENUS EUMUSA : 1 TO 27 



1. M. sapientum L. Trunk to 20 or 25 ft. high, sucker- 

 ing. Leaves oblong, green, 5-8 ft. long, 1J-2 ft. broad, 



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