316 Floricultural and Botanical Notices, 



Musacex. 



746. MU'S^ 29028 ... chin^nsis Swt. 



■^Synonyme : M. Cavendishw Paxton Mag. Bot. t. 51. 



This species of Musa, named, in Paxton's Magazine of Botany for April, 

 1836, M. Cavendishw, in honour of the Duke of Devonshire, was previously 

 named by Sweet, in the Addenda to his Hortus JBritannicus, pubhshed in 1830, 

 Musa chinensis. We are informed, in the article accompanying the engraving, 

 that the specific name Cavendishw was given to it in November last, by A. B. 

 Lambert, Esq., at a meeting of the Linnaean Society, at which he exhibited 

 • a copy of an old Chinese drawing, which he believed to be of a plant identical 

 with the species of Musa now before us. We wrote to Mr. Cameron respect- 

 ing this plant j and the following is an extract from his answer : — " In an- 

 swer to your enquiries about the Musa Cavendlshw, I have to inform you 

 that I have not seen Paxton's figure of the plant, but know from enquiries 

 made of me that it is the same as was grown at Bury Hill. Two plants were 

 sent from the Mauritius by Mr. Telfair, in 1829, to Mr. Barclay, both of 

 which lived, and were the only plants of the species I ever heard of as being 

 in the country, up to the time of my leaving Bury Hill. Miisa chinensis was 

 the name which Mr, Telfair sent with the plants ; and this name was com- 

 municated to Mr. Sweet, who published it in the Addenda to the second 

 edition of his Hortus Britannicus. It was No. 378. Musa chinensis, in the 

 catalogue of sale at Bury Hill. Whether any other species had a right of 

 priority to that name, or whether the specific characters of the species had 

 ever been published so as to establish it, I cannot tell. Mr. Telfair mentioned 

 in one of his letters, that he had collected a great number of both species and 

 varieties of Miisa at the Mauritius, to ascertain those most worthy of culture ; 

 and that he considered the Musa chinensis to be the most desirable, for that 

 purpose, out of all his collection ; and, from its also fruiting when only 3 ft. 

 high, he had very sanguine hopes of its being found to prove a valuable ad- 

 dition to the English stoves, where he expected it would fruit abundantly. — 

 David Cameron. Botanic Garden, Birmingham, May 12. 1836." 



M. Cavendishw, having been the first name accompanied by a scientific 

 description, must, therefore, according to the laws of botanists, be the future 

 name of this most valuable new sort of Musa. It grows to the height of 4 ft. 

 or 5 ft. ; has a nodding spadix, with brown-red spathes, freckled with white 

 spots ; pale yellow petals, the upper one fringed, and the lower one reflexed. 

 The plant at Chatsworth is 4 ft. 6 in. high, with leaves very short and thick, and 

 short petioles. It began to show flowers in November, 1835; and in April, 

 1836, there were 100 fine fruit, which were swelling oflT. 



Mr. Newman, the curator of the Botanic Garden at the Mauritius, writing 

 to Mr. Cooper, the botanic gardener at Wentworth, in March, 1835, says that 

 he has gathered, from a plant of this species, 240 fruit from a single raceme, 

 in less than a year after planting ; and that the fruit is of an exquisite flavour. 

 Mr. Newman has offered plants to Mr. Cooper ; and, as the Musa multiplies 

 with tolerable rapidity by suckers, we have no doubt, from what is stated of it 

 below, that, in a few years, it will be in as geiu^ral cultivation as the pine- 

 apple. The following passage concludes the account in Paxton's Magazine : — 

 " We have a very healthy plant, which we intend to grow with every pos- 

 sible care J and there is no doubt but a great crop of fruit will be gathered. If 

 our anticipations should prove correct, what a valuable addition this will be to 

 our exotic fruits ! A pit 40 ft. long, 15 ft. broad, and 5' ft. high, will produce 

 several hundred weight of fruit in a year, with no other care or attention than 

 that of giving plenty of manure to grow in, and a good supply of heat and 

 water. It will fruit at all seasons, and, no doubt, with easier culture than any 

 kind of fruit grown under glass." {Paxt. Mag. Bot., April.) Plants of this 

 species are in Roliisson's nursery at Tooting, and are 5 guineas each. 

 KsphodeldcecB . 



1053. ORNITHO'GALUM L. [O r.m Bot. reg. t. 1853 



*chloroleiicum ijnd/. greenish-white-Jfot/^ererf tf I or 1 jl Gsh.W Valparaiso ? 1834 



