Vo1 - 1 MUSACEAE 221 



MUSACEAE 



1. MUSA Linnaeus 



MUSA ERRANS (Blanco) Teodoro in Philip. Journ. Sci. 10 (1915) Bot. 

 390, t. 17, f. 6-8; Merr. Sp. Blancoanae (1918) 105. 

 Musa troglodytarum Linn. var. errans Blanco Fl. Filip. (1837) 247, 



ed, 2 (1845) 172, ed. 3, 1 (1877) 310. 

 Musa amboinensis Naves Novis. App. (1880) 218, non Rumph. 

 Luzon (Apayao, Bulacan, Bataan, Rizal, Laguna) , Merrill Sp. Blancoanae 

 873, Teodoro, B. S. 28268 Fenix. In forests at low and medium altitudes^ 

 Endemic. 



Local names: Pau-ua (Ibn.) ; saging-matsing (Tag.); saging-na-ligau 

 (Tag.). 



Var. BOTOAN Teodoro in Philip. Journ. Sci, 10 (1915) Bot. 391, t. 7, f. 

 5-10; Merr. Sp. Blancoanae (1918) 106. 

 Musa troglodytarum Blanco Fl. Filip. (1837) 246, ed. 2 (1845) 172, 

 ed. 3, 1 (1877) 310, t. 89, non Linn. 

 Luzon (Rizal), Merrill Sp. Blancoanae 217, Teodoro. Planted in most 

 parts of the Philippines; really referable to M. errans as a variety? 



Local names: Balaiang (Ilk.) ; butuan (Tag.) ; butuhan (Tag) ; vul- 

 lungan (Ibn., It.). 



MUSA GLAUCA Roxb. PL Coromandel 3 (1819) t. 300; Naves Novis. App. 

 (1880) 218; Teodoro in Philip. Journ. Sci. 10 (1915) Bot. 387; 

 Merr. Sp. Blancoanae (1918) 104. 

 Musa troglodytarum- Linn. var. dolioformis Blanco Fl. Filip. (1837) 

 855, ed. 2 (1845) 174, ed. 1 (1877) 312. 

 Luzon (Cavite, Laguna), Merrill Sp. Blancoanae 946,' 537. In ravines, 

 etc., at low and medium altitudes. Burma, Pegu. 

 Local name: Virgen (Sp.). 



MUSA PARAD1SIACA Linn. Sp. PI. (1753) 1043; Miq. Fl. Ind. Bat. 3 

 (1859) 588; Naves Novis. App. (1880) 215; Merr. Fl. Manila 

 (1912) 154; Teodoro in Philip. Journ. Sci. 10 (1915) Bot. 412; 

 K. Schum. in Engl. Pflanzenreich 1 (1900) 19, /. 3. 



The plantains are those bananas which are edible after being cooked and 

 very inferior or inedible raw. A number of forms or varieties occur in 

 the Philippines, which from a species standpoint are scarcely to be distin- 

 guished from Musa sapientum Linn., the bananas. Following custom the 

 forms are distributed between the two Linnean binomials. It is by no 

 means certain that the numerous varieties which have been proposed by 

 Blanco, Teodoro, and Quisumbing are correctly distributed as between 

 Musa paradisiaca Linn, and M. sapientum. 



I am of the opinion that no more weight should be placed on the 

 numerous forms of the banana than on similar forms of other exceedingly 

 variable cultivated plants such as the orange, the apple, rice, the common 

 bean, sugar cane, etc., because relatively speaking the differences in cul- 

 tivated bananas are certainly no gxeater than those in the cultivated forms 

 of the other plants mentioned above. No attempt has been made to corre- 

 late these Philippine forms or varieties with extra-Philippine ones although 

 some, perhaps many, of our cultivated bananas are certainly identical with 



