230 
sights in nature; the vast leaves reflecting the rays of the hot sun from 
bright green surface contrast vividly with the dark-hued foliage of 
the trees around, and show off the whorls of flowers with their fleshy, 
metallie, purple-red envelopes and the great bunches of green and ripe 
yellow fruit." 
Burton passed through groves of cultivated plantains in Central 
Africa during * a whole day's march" ; while Johnston in Eastern 
Africa regarded * the groves of emerald green bananas every where met 
with as ma marking the commencement of ps — region. 
Belt's observations in the New World are :— 
The banana tree shoots up its ipsam: stem and unfolds its 
immense entire leaves bial great rapidity ; and a group ot them waving 
their silky leaves in the or shining ghostly white in the moonlight, 
forms one of those beautiful sights that can only be seen to perfection in 
the tropics.” 
An excellent general account of the plantaiu and banana was given by 
the late Profe:sor Lindley in Trans. Roy. Hort. Soc., V. pp. 83-84:— 
he plantain or banana, with which as a tre 
list pagas is the eruta e consumed by the habitet of the 
id fro ritious qualities and general use may, 
niles mds in a raw or ee ien form, be regarded rather as a neces- 
sary article of food than as an occasional luxury. In equinoctial Asia 
anc merica, in tropical Africa, in the Islands of the Atlantic and 
of the greatest diversity of form. It usually i is long and narr ow, of a 
pale ) yellow or dark red colour, with a yellow farinaceous flesh. But in 
form it varies to oblong and nearly spherical ; and in colour it offers all 
the shades and variations of tints that the combination of yellow and 
red, in different proportions, can produce. Some sorts are said always 
to be of a bright green colour. In general, the character of the fruit to 
an European palate is that of mild insipidity ; some sorts are even so 
coarse as not to be edible without preparation. The greater number, 
however, are sas in their raw state, and some varieties acquire by 
cultivation a very exquisite flavour, some of them vertens the finest 
pear. In the batter” sorts the flesh is no harder than butter is in 
winter, and has much the colour of the finest yellow butter. It is 
delicate taste, and melts in the mouth like marmalade. ‘To point (dk all 
the kinds that are eultivated in the East Indies alone would be as 
difficult as to describe the varieties of apples and pears in Europe; for 
the names vary according to the es size, taste, and colour of the 
fruits." 
Besides the fruit-yielding Musas there are many species so ornamental 
that they are surpassed by “few plants admired for their deerat stature 
and graceful foliage. ‘The largest of these is the Abyssinian Musa 
Ensete, first described by the traveller Bruce. The ee in fine 
specimens are nearly 30 feet long and about 3 feet wide. The smallest 
species is a singularly interesting one recently discovered by Delavay in 
Western China rie lasiocar pa). There is no apparent stem an 
the leaves are only a g een these two extreme 
forms there are numerous V tobati ones, = graceful and attractive, 
some with bright red flower-bracts. Others, again, remarkable for 
their mottled or banded leaves, are cultivated fi their beauty. In spite 
their value as food plants and their wide distribution, Musas havo not 
