328 USEFUL PLANTS OF rtUAil. 



Mostaza. ^^ee Bra-<.tii<i juncea. 



Mucuna gigantea. Same as Stholobhim gitianteum. 



Uucuna pniriens. Same as siizolobiiivi pruriens. 



Mudu-murunga (Ceylon). See Soj,]ior(i tomenUi.^d. 



Mugwort. See Arlnnlxid ruJijiirix. 



Mulberry, Indian. See Mm-imhi i-iii-iftilin. 



Mumutun (Guam). 



A genera! name in the island vernacular for rank-growing weeds. Cama tnra is 

 L-alled mumutimpalaoan (female weed) or mumutun adau.elon. The name mumutun 

 chiva (goat weed) is applied to a low, snudl-flowered composite; mumutun lahe 

 (male weed) to an ill-smeiling hispid, blue-Howered labiate, with cordate leaves; and 

 mumutun sable (sword weed) to f W.v.fi'n occidentalis. 

 Mung (India). See Pliaseolus mungo. 

 Munggo (Philippines'!. See Phaseol us mungo. 

 ^^BTusa paradisiaca. Pl.\nt.\ix. Banana. Plate xxn. 



Family ilusaceae. 



Local xa-Mes. — Chotda (Guam, for the plant and green fruit); Aga (Guam, for 

 the ripe fruit); Platano (Spanish): Saguint:. Pisang (Philippines); Fa'i 

 ( Samoa ) . 



Bananas were growing in Guam before the discovery of the island by Magellan. 

 Pigafetta describes them in his narrative as ' ' tigs a palm long."" Usually the numer- 

 ous A-arieties are grouped under two heads. Those of smaller size, which are sweet 

 and which may be eaten raw, are called bananas and have often been considered a 

 distinct species, .I/cjki t^uiiieutum; the larger ones, which are less sweet and more 

 starchy, and which must be cooked before they are fit to eat, are called plantains, 

 and are considered by some to constitute the species ^fusd parmlisiara. At least eleven 

 varieties are recognized in Guam, some of which were undoubtedly introduced after 

 the discovery. Schumann, in his monograph, regards M. sapientum as a subspecies 

 of -1/. paradisiaca. 6 



Among the varieties noticed liy Gaudichaud were chotdan <■ patgon, a small banana 

 of fine flavor; chotdan lago ('foreign banana"); chotdan tonduke, a giant plantain, 

 probably introduced from the Philippines, where it bears the name of "tondok," 

 having few fruits on a raceme, but these nf great size, and having also a strong fiber 

 which is usLcl for cordage and for weaving into fabrics; and three forms of aga, as 

 tlie ripe fruit is called: Aga Sumay (a variety cultivated first in the village of that 

 name), aga inahalang, and aga langiii. In the last edition of Blanco's Flora Filipina 

 the large plantain called tondok is called Musa cornicuUita magna. Its fruit is often 

 more than a foot long and when cooked has a fine apple-like flavor. 



Bananas are easily propagated by suckers, which spring up from the base of the 

 old plant when the fruit begins to ripen. When two or three bananas at the top of 

 the bunch turn yellow the bunch should be cut off and hung up by a string in the 

 house, when the rest will gradually ripen. Only one bunch is borne by a plant; but 

 as suckers spring up from the underground rootstalk, the life of the banana may be 

 said to be cnntinuijus. In Guam bananas grow almost spontaneously. In Plate 

 XXII is shown a plantation of them along the mad leading from Agana to the port. 



The fruit may l)e prejiared for exportation either liy cutting it into strips vr slices 

 and drying it, or by making it into flour. In the first case ripe bananas are used. 



n Primo Viaggio intorno, ISilO. 



''Monograpii .Mus:ice;:e, p. 20, 1H10. 



' Th" letter ii appended to the generic term chotda, takes the jdace of the ligature 

 na in Ihe langnaiic of (iniini. In the lame way the termination liy is used in Philip- 

 pine dialects in pluco vf the ligature n.jH. Ste p. 11-i. 



