328 



localities, and this is one of the reasons, why it is so exten- 

 sively cultivated in the South Sea Islands. The yield of 

 fruit is profuse (as much as 200 to 300 fruits in a spike), 

 and the flavor excellent. This as well as M. sapientuin and 

 M. paradisiaca ripen still their fruits in Madeira and 

 Florida. 



Musa Ensete, G-melin. 



Bruce's Banana. Erom Sofala to Abyssinia, in mountain 

 regions. This magnificent plant attains a height of 30 feet, 

 the leaves occasionally reaching to the length of 20 feet, 

 with a width of 3 feet, being perhaps the largest in the whole 

 empire of plants, exceeding those of Strelitzia and Eavenala, 

 and surpassing even in quadrat-measurement those of the 

 grand water-plant Victoria Begia, while excelling in com- 

 parative circumference also the largest compound frond of 

 Angiopteris evecta, or divided leaf of Grodwinia Gfigas, 

 though the compound leaves of some palms are still larger. 

 The inner part of the stem, and the young spike of the 

 Ensete can be boiled to serve as a table esculent, but the 

 fruit is pulpless. This plant produces no suckers, and 

 requires several years to come into flower and seed, when 

 it dies off like the Sago plant, the Caryota palm and others, 

 which flower but once without reproduction from the root. 



Musa Livingstoniana, Kirk. 



Mountains of Sofala, Mozambique and the Niger regions. 

 Similar to M. Ensete ; seeds much smaller. Possibly re- 

 quiring no protection here in favorable places. 



Musa paradisiaca, L. 



The ordinary Plantain or Pisang. India. Among the most 

 prolific of plants, requiring the least care in climes adapted 

 for its growth. Stem not spotted. Bracts purple inside. 

 In this as well as the foregoing and the following new shoots 

 are produced from the root, to replace annually the fruit- 

 bearing stem. The fruit of this is chiefly prepared by some 

 cooking process. Only a few varieties are distinguished, 

 and they seem to have sprung from the wild state of M. 

 sapientuin. The writer did not wish to pass this and the 



