GEOGRAPHICAL DISTRIBUTION OF MUSA. 63 
Plantain and Banana most extensively cultivated. The Plantain, 
according to Dr. Helfer, is to be found in the highest perfection. 
in Tenasserim, especially in province Amherst. More than 
twenty varieties are known, of which several are peculiar to the 
country, and the greatest part of them are superior to any to 
be got in Bengal. They thrive well everywhere without the 
slightest care. No Burmah or Karean house is to be found 
without a plantation of Plantains. As the latter leave their 
abodes, at least every three years, in order to migrate to fresh 
localities, they are, of course, obliged to leave their Plantain 
gardens behind them, and therefore these may be found grow- 
ing luxuriantly in many uninhabited places, until they become 
choked up by the growth of the more vigorous jungle trees. 
With the Plantain, as with other long-cultivated plants, 
many distinct varieties are recognised and named; but which 
it is extremely difficult to arrange in suitable order. But 
the natives of Bengal generally prefer the large and coarse- 
fruited kinds, called Plantain; while the smaller and more 
delicately tasted fruit, known as the Banana, is alone esteemed 
by Europeans. These are cultivated in the most northern, as 
well as in the southern parts of India; while along the jungly 
base of the Himalayas there is a suitable climate as far as 30° 
of north latitude, for plants of this genus growing in a wild 
state. That growing in Nepal has been called M. nepalensis. 
A similiar species may be seen growing below the Mussoore 
range, as well as near Nahn. The fruit, however, in all these 
situations, consists of little else than the hard dry seeds.’ In 
Kemaon and Gurhwal it is cultivated at as great an elevation as 
4000 and 5000 feet above the sea, and has been seen as far north 
as the Chumba range at an equal elevation. Major Munro 
has seen the wild Plantain at 7000 feet above the sea, in the 
Khondah slopes of the Neilgherries, Though many of the 
above have been mentioned as distinct species, it is probable 
that some, at least, are only varieties. 
“Baron Humboldt has suggested, that several species of 
Musa may possibly be confounded under the names of Plantain 
1 A similar variety of Musa sapientum, having seeds surrounded with a gummy 
substance, instead of fruit-like pulp, was found by Dr. Finlayson, on Pulo Ubi, near 
the southern extremity of Cambodia. In Batavia also, there is stated to be a variety 
full of seeds, which is called Pisang batu, or Pisang bidju—that is, Seed Plantain. 
