i670 



fjxxxviii.; 1889, .t4 1303 (vars. "Victor Hugo," " Guillaume 



- Coustou ■').. ' ' 



,. . Vtrnac. wowne5..-^Esalebo (Benin, Univin); Ebesalebo (Benin, 

 ^Farquhar);- Okookoko, Nzonomo (Agolo, S. ISTigeria, Thomas); 

 •Tasbi— ".Rosary " (Nyika, Wakefield); Balisier a larges Feuilles 

 (Antilles, Descourtilz); Balisier des • Indes (Bedouie); Indian 

 . C&ne {Descourtilz — Common Indian Heed, Indian Shot. 



Oban, 'Benin, Aboh-Lower Niger, and found also in Senegal, 

 Sierra Leone, Ashanti, East Tropical Africa, Natal and Tropical 



. ; Asia. Native of Tropical America. 

 V Used medicinally, Antilles (De^coi^r^iZ^, I.e.); and. necklaces 



!^re made of the seeds in India and East Africa (Mus. Kew). 



The plant is very ornamental and there are some fine varieties 



"■cultivated in gardens. Propagated from seed or by ^" " " ^ 



'the rootstocks : and plants grow freely in rich open well-drained 



division 



.soil. 



' * 



edulis, Ker. the " Tous les Mois " of the West Indies, 

 also known as " Queensland Arrowroot," yields a starchhke 

 Arrowroot from the tuberous roots. (See Kew Bull. 1893, 

 pp. 331-333; Agric. News, Barbados, April 17th, 1909, p. 119.) 



MusA, Linn. . 



Musa Cavendishii, Lambert, Pax. Mag. Bot. iii. (1837) p. 51 

 [Jf. chinensis, Sweet, Hort. Brit. ed. 2, p. 596]. 



A herbaceous perennial, 4-6 ft. high. Leaves 6-8 in a 



, spreading head, each 2-3 ft. long, 1 ft. or so broad, base rounded, 



glaucous' green.. Spike, 1-2 ft. long, bearing on an average 



200-250 fruits, or found to bear. from 12-14 hands, an averat^e 



bunch containing about 400 fruits (Sprague & Hutchinson, 



,Kew BulL 1913, p. 290)— 4-6, in. long, 1-1| in. diam., 5-6 sided. 



/«.— Garden, 1.893,. p. 496; Kew Bull. 1894, p. 296; Add. 



Series vi. 1906, Mtisa, p. 68; Rep. Agric. & Bot. Dept. 



Barbados, 1908, f. 11 (plant in bearing) ; Philippine Journ. 



,;; ?c . (Bot.) X. Nov. 1915, t. 16 (var. kawaiiensis). 



, Chinese Banana, Dwarf Banana, Canary Banana. 



Native of S. China. Cultivated in the Canary Islands, 

 Barbados, Mauritius,; Seychelles, Fiji, Samoan or Navigator 

 ■ Islands, and in many other tropical and sub-tropical countries, 

 including West Africa. In Nigeria, . at Oloke Meji, 50 suckers 

 obtained from the Canary Islands in Octpber 1906 were reported 

 to be doing well, and it was hoped that suckers would be available 

 for sale in the following year (Col. Rep. Misc. No. 51, 1908, p. 43) 

 and a plantation is recorded as having been formed there in 

 1908 (Kew BuU. 1908, p. 201). Bananas were also- reported to 

 be doing well at Kaduna, N. Nigeria (Rep. 1917, p. 20). 

 ' The principal commercial source of this banana is the Canary 

 Islands, from whence in 1913, 2,138,000 bunches were received. 

 It is packed with much greatjer care than the " Jamaica Banana " 



less liable to injury^ -in travelling — being usually packed 

 '-- separately, with dry-banana leaves in wooden crates, or in baskets 



1 

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