EEJUVENESCENCE IN NATURE. 75 



plant. Under these circumstances the innermost leaves 

 are the longest ; in M. mpientum I have found them as 

 much as 26 feet long, of vi^hich the sheath made about 

 13 feet, the petiole 2 feet, and the blade 10 feet. In 

 M. rubra they are only about 16 feet long, the petiole 

 being longer in proportion than in M. sapientum. From 

 the point where the stem shoots up into the slender 

 flower-shaft, breaking through the stem-like convolution 

 of sheaths, commences the decrease of length of the 

 leaves. In M. rubra I found as many as five euphyllary 

 leaves on the elongated portion of the stem, the upper 

 three of which, especially, exhibited a considerable de- 

 crease, not merely in the length of the sheath, but also in 

 that of the blade ; the last of them was only about 4 feet 

 long, namely, the sheath 1-|, the stalk 1, and the blade 

 1^ feet. The internodes bearing these last five euphyl- 

 lary leaves measured respectively about 1 ^, 1 , 2, 3, 3 feet 

 in length. Not quite 2 feet distant from the point of 

 origin of the last euphyllary leaf, followed a transitional 

 leaf, about IJ feet long, and of broadly-linear, gradually 

 acuminated form, leading to the hypsophyllary formation; 

 at no more than 2 inches above this, began the long 

 succession of approximated, ovate, rosy bracts, the first 

 of which are about 5 inches long, the following sinking 

 down gradually to 3 — 2 inches. The lowest six bracts 

 of the inflorescence of M. rubra which I examined, bore 

 female flowers in the axils, all the succeeding bore male 

 flowers.* Musa also exhibits a beautiful graduation of 

 the breadth of the base of the leaves. All the leaves of 

 the lower part, up to the flowering-shoot, are completely 

 embracing. I found, in M. rubra, the uppermost three 

 euphyllary leaves embracing {f, i^, and f of the circimi- 

 ference ; the transitional leaf |, the bracts of the female 

 flowers \ to |, those of the male i. In the plantain, 

 therefore, we see the leaf-formation ascend by gradual 



* According to Rumph, in Musa paradisiaca 12 to 20 bracts have female 

 flowers, and 12 to 20 of tkem in each axil ; so that a single inflorescence 

 bears 100 to 200 fruits. 



