112 ON 1HE BANANA AND PLANTAIN. 



brilliant wings of butterflies and moths ; whilst the iridescent elytras of 

 several kinds of beetle are commingled here and there to enhance the 

 general effect. The colours of insects are really so splendid that this 

 first step towards preserving and grouping them in an ornamental form 

 must be hailed with satisfaction, and it constitutes likewise another 

 addition to the very long list of waste products utilised, enumerated in 

 the work recently written by our worthy Editor. 



ON THE BANANA AND PLANTAIN. 



BY PAUL MADINIER. 



The banana (Musa, Lin., from its Arabic name, mouz) is a remark- 

 able plant which forms a very striking object among the luxuriant 

 vegetation of the tropics. Its elegant leaves, long and broad, majes- 

 tically crown the stem, which, though it has the appearance of a tree, 

 yet partakes much more of the nature of a grass. The banana* plant is 

 reproduced by shoots cast in great numbers by its root, which is com- 

 posed of long fibres, which are of a cylindrical shape. Its stalk owes its 

 increase to the successive opening of leaves rolled in the form of a cone, 

 all of which have the same centre. " It can be best compared," says 

 Labat, " to a great roll of many leaves, the exterior ones of which serve 

 as envelopes for those which they enclose." The banana (Mus~a para- 

 disiaca, Lin.), or according to R. Brown, the Musa sapientum, is the species 

 which may be considered as the origin of all the kinds of bananas, 

 which are not merely simple varieties. Botanists distinguish more than 

 a hundred, but we will enumerate only the principal of these. 



Musa sapientum, Lin., or the wise men's banana, bears from eight to 

 ten rows of fruit, and has ten or a dozen fruits in each row. 



Musa sinensis, or Cavendishii, H.P., is the Chinese banana. 



Musa coccinea, And., or the scarlet banana. 



Musa rosea, Jacq., the banana with red spathes. 



Musa rosacea, Pridham, is found in Hindostan, South America, and 

 some of the Antilles. 



Musa superba, which, as well as the Musa ornata, is commonly called 

 the monkey banana, their fruit being only eaten by those animals. 



Musa glauca, Roxb., distinguished by the rough appearance of all its 

 parts. 



Musa troglodytarum, Lin., is a kind very little cultivated, of which 



* Our correspondent uses the name banana where we usually write plantain. 



