DESCRIPTION OF SPECIES OF MUSA 265 



this several seedless cultivated varieties are immediately 

 derived, differing in the colour of the leaves and fruit. 

 They all have the leaves glaucous beneath, and in one 

 form the waxy bloom is so copious that torches are made 

 from it. The cultivated variety is much larger in all its 

 parts, with much larger flowers and longer cylindrical or 

 angled yellow or greenish seedless fruits. Of this there 

 are forty-eight distinguishable varieties, of which the most 

 curious is the duck plantain, the fruit of which has a beak 

 nearly as long as its body. 



3. M . corniculata Lour. Trunk 10-12 ft. long. Leaves 

 5-6 ft. long. Inflorescence drooping ; only the lower two 

 or three bracts and flower-clusters are developed. Free 

 petal nearly as long as the deeply toothed perianth. Fruit 

 cylindrical, a foot or more long, 1J-2J in. in diameter, 

 golden yellow ; skin thick ; pulp reddish white, firm, dry, 

 sweet, very palatable when cooked. Malay islands and 

 Cochin China. The fruit has been compared to a cucumber 

 as regards shape and size. The Lubang variety produces 

 only a single fruit, large enough for a full meal for three 

 men. 



4. M. Cavendishii Paxt. Whole plant 4-6 ft. high. 

 Trunk 2-3 ft. long, suckering. Leaves 6-8 very close 

 together, spreading, 2-3 ft. long, much rounded at the 

 base, rather glaucous ; stalk short, deeply channelled. 

 Inflorescence dense, short, drooping. Bracts red-brown 

 or dark ; male flowers and their bracts persistent. Perianth 

 yellowish white, an inch long, with five obtuse lobes ; free 

 petal about half as long Fruits as many as 200 to 250 in 

 the bunch, oblong, six-angled, slightly curved, 4-5 in 

 long, above 1 J in. in diameter ; seedless, edible, with a 

 rather thick skin and delicate fragrant flesh. Southern 

 China. 



5. M. nana Lour. Trunk 5 ft. long. Leaves 3 ft. long 

 Inflorescence short, recurved. Flowers all fertile. Fruit 

 ovate-oblong, seedless, edible. Cochin China. It may be 

 only a form of M . Cavendishii. 



6. M. lasiocarpa Franchet. Whole plant 1-2 ft, high. 



