244 
The rhizome is 2-3 inches in diameter and crowned with successive 
e name, and contains 4-6 seeds. This interesting plant is 
regarded by Franchet as the type of a new section called Musella» It 
is remarkable for the absence of a stem, the pubescent charaeter of 
its fruit, the dense form of the inflorescence, the persistency of all the 
bracts, and the etes absence of pulp in the fruit. The Abbé Delavay 
discovered the plant in 1885 in the mountainous regions d pei n 
on the rocks of Loko-chan and Che-tong near ‘Tapin-tz a 
elevation of 4,000 fect. He states that it is easy of caltinetions ie 
he has grown it in his garden for four years, but had not flowered it. 
Journ. de Bot., vol. iii. . (1889), pp. 329—331. 
M. Cavendishii, Lamb. M. chinensis, Sweet (name only); North 
aes y, Nos. 225, 816; M; sinensis, Sagot. Stoloniferous. Whole 
plant 4—6 feet high ; leaves 6-8 inches in a dense rosette, spreading, 
oblong, 2-3 “fest long, about a foot bia d, much rounded at the base, 
rather glaucous; petiole short, stout, deeply channelled, with two broad 
ike 
rele ae green edges. Rachis short, stout. pike dense, oblong, 
1-2 feet long, drooping ; bracts red-brown or dark brown, ovate, the 
lower 6 inches long, the upper 3-4 inches; male flowers and their 
upps 
bracts persistent. Petal ovate, entire. Frnit as many as 200-250 to a 
panicle, oblong, 6-angled, slightly curved, 4-5 inches long, above 
introduced to Bhgland i in 1827. This is now extensively cultivated in all 
tropical and sub-tropical countries and known as the ** Chinese or Dwarf’ 
banani: It furnishes a large proportion of the bananas usually sold in 
slightly different fruit. "The interesting sto ory o of the introduction ot 
the Chinese banana to the islands of Polynesia is thus told by Seemann 
(Flora Vitiensis, p. 289) :— 
“ An important addition to their stock of bananas the Fijians received 
in the Vudi ni papalagi (i.e., foreign banana), our Musa chinensis or 
Cavendishii, which the late John Williams, better he 
Martyr of Eromanga, brought in à wardian case from the Duke of 
Devonshire's seat at Chatsworth to the Samoan or Navigator Islands, 
whence again, in 1848, the Rev. George Pritchard carried it to the 
Tongan or Friendly Islands, a as 5 well as to the Fijis. Its introduction 
vietata its the Vudi ni papalagi 
numbers amongst the most common Durs of the coutitéy A sample 
of fibre from the stem of M. Verger ume is in the Kew Museum, 
from Jamaica, prepared by Nathaniel Wils 
10. M. nana, Zour. Trunk cylindrical, p feet long, 4 foot diameter, 
leaves mein F feet high ; spike short, recurved ; flowers all 
