249 
clusters 3-4, close, of 12-15 flowers each; bracts oblong, dull brown, 
the lower 8-12 inches long; male clusters 8—12, their bracts much 
imbricated, p alyx whitish, 2 inches kig shortly five- 
toothed at the tip. Fruit oblong- -trigonous 3 inches long, umbonate at 
the apex, narrowed gradually to the capi base. Seeds not seen. 
Distribution :—Liu Kiu archipelago (25° to 30° N. lat.); cultivated 
in Southern Japan. Introduced into duration à in England by Messrs. 
Veitch of Chelsea. Described from a plant that flowered in the 
Temperate House at Kew in 1891. It is said to be as hardy as 
M. Ensete. It is grown in Southern Japan for its fibre. An interesting 
series of articles made from this “ Japanese plantain,” consisting of 
fibre, cloth and other fabrics, is in the Kew Museum, presented by 
. J. H. Veitch, F.L.S. The cloth is used for making screens, 
and for PEN books. 
* M. Martini, Rev. Hort. Belg. 1892, 107, fig. 12, has the habit of 
M. sapientum, and is said to be more hardy than M. Ensete, with 
bright rose-red flowers. ‘The leaves are ions long petioled, firm in 
texture, bright green above, glaucous beneath with reddish veins. 
A plant which has not yet flowered exists in the Kew collections 
brought from the Botanieal Garden, Orotav a, Teneriffe, by the Assistant 
Director in 1893. 
21. M. malaccensis, — Stems few, slender, 6 inches diameter, 
with purple-brown blotch Leaves about 8 feet long, green with 
bro ir 
lanceolate, sub- Ms brown, outside glaucous, inside striped with yellow. 
Female flowers 16 in a bract in a double row. Fruit sub- cylindrical, 
somewhat aia 4 inches long, an inch wide; seeds black, angular ; 
* pisang karok” of the Malays. Distribution :—Common in the 
jungles “of Malacca, Selangor, and Perak, occurring also in Pahang. 
* M. zebrina (Flore des Serres, t. 1061, 1062) is doubtless,” according 
to Ridley, “ a young plant either of this species or of M. sumatrana a, Becc. 
I never saw” hesays “any form of M. sapientum, zs May which species 
Mr. Baker refers this) with barred leaves. The vn bars are very 
constant in young plants of M. malaccensis and even i persist sometimes 
in the adult foliage. This species may perhaps be the parent 
of some of the cultivated bananas here, but is Sf distinct from 
M. sapientum in the hairy rachis and other poin An 
attempt has been made to utilise the fibre. The plant is vea ab undant 
and springs up like a weed when old jungle is felled and Bone an 
impenetrable thicket." 
om Po flava, Ridley. Leaves 16 inches wide, green. Spike nodding, 
inch 
16 to a bract in tw 
Fruit, when ary, 2 inches long, five-angled. Distr ibution :— Easter 
rend ‘of the Malay Peninsula, Pass at Pulau Tijau on the Patáng 
Rive 
Wésd; allied io M. malaccensis, but the broad, thick, blunt, bright 
ellow bracts give it a totally different appearance, the spike being 
quite blunt at the top. 
* Musa sp. dan gkong. No. 467, 1886. A plant of a Musa, 
native of Hong ong, supposed to be new, was received from Mr. 
Charles Ford, F. L S., in 1886 and again in 1894. It is now growing at 
