250 
Kew but it has not yet flowered, It has a slender stem and rather small 
leaves, The flowers, judging by dried specimens, are those of A. 
sapientum. 
*23. M. sapientum, Linn. Sp. Plant. 1477; Trew, Ehret. t. 21-22. 
Stem cylindrical, usually green, reaching à height of C feet, 4-10 
inches diameter, stoloniferous from the base. Lea oblong, thin, 
bright green, 5-8 feet long, 14-2 feet broad, banti rounded at the 
base ; petiole 1-14 feet. long. "Spike drooping, often 4—5 feet long ; 
male flowers deciduous; bracts lanceolate or SRG Ah coslas dull 
violet, more or less glaucous outside, the lower 1--14 feet long, the 
upper 4 foot, often red inside, several expanded at once, the edges of 
the upper not involute. Flowers about a dozen to a cluster, yellowish- 
white, 14 inches long; calyx five-toothed at the top; petal ovate, half 
as long as the calyx. Fruit oblong-trigonous, 3-8 inches long, 11-2 
inches diameter, Ps three to nine bundles of about a dozen each, 
rounded to the apex, narrowed gradually to the sessile base, yellow or 
bright yellow or reddish when ripe, the flesh fit to eat without cooking. 
Common banana. niversally cultivated throughout the tropical zone 
of both hemispheres for the sake of its fruit. It also yields a fibre, 
bec however, is much inferior in tenacity to that of M. textilis. | 
the original forms of this is probably the wild M. sapientum 
sisikii by Roxburgh (Corom. Pt. t. 275) as grown from see 
received from Chittagong. 
*Var “M: paradisiaca, Linn. Sp. Plant. 1477 ; Trew, Ehret, t. "ue 
Male flowers and bracts less deciduous. Fruit cylindrical, 4-1 foo 
saccharine pulp, not fit to eat without coo -e Common plantain. 
Cultivated universally in the tropical zone. l 
Var. M. Troglodytarum, Linn.; M. Uranoscopos, Rumph. Fruit 
small, crowded on the erect axis of the panicle, obovoid-oblong or nearly 
round, reddish-yellow, containing rudimentary seeds. Flesh sweet, 
ellow. Wild in India, Ceylon Merah, and the Malay Isles, the favourite 
food of elephants. The above names have often been sipplied to forms 
of other species than sapientum, "with a similar habit, such as M. Fehi. 
w M. oleracea, Vieill. A flowerless form with a glaucous violet 
stem and an elongated thick turnip-like rhizome, which is. boiled. or 
roasted like a pns "which it resembles in taste. New Caledonia, |. Native 
name Potet | 
*Var. M. vittata; Hook. in Bot. Mag. t. 5402 ; M. vittata; Acherm. 
in Flore des Serres, t. 1510-1513. Leaves and tong fruits copiously 
striped with white. Spathes bright red inside. Imported from the 
island of St. Thomas, West Africa. 
Other varieties to which Latin names have been given are: M. violacea, 
Hort; M. sanguinea, Welw. ; M. odorata, Lour. ; (M. mensaria, Rumph); 
(M. regia, Rumph); * M. champa Hote’: * M. martabanica, Hort. ; 
T A ioa Horan.; * M. rubra, Firminger, non Wallich. 
