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Musa Troglodytarum of Moon (* nawari kesel” of "the Singhalese) 
is said to be wild in the mountains of ndy, although not mentioned 
by subsequent wether: Of this there are said to be three cultivated 
sorts, nawari-kesel sudu (white), nawari-kesel vir (black), and 
nawari-kesel tis (thirty). The wild plant i is nawari-kesel aet. 
Th waites mentions only one wild species in Ceylon, his “ wal-kaikel 
gas” (Musa eadera k d he adds this is the species from which 
have originated the numerous varieties of sweet plantains in the island. 
Kurz remarks : “ ‘There seems to be something wrong in this statement, 
considering that Moon has eight wild me of which one (his M. 
Troglodytarum) should have an irt 
Sawers iet Wern. Soc., Vr ifori to the wild p - 
e found in the ticostétie: of Ceylon as follows :—** It w. 
the sides of fa rugged hills that we first saw thë plániain treet in a 
state of. nature. When uncultivated the fruit of this plant is c 
paratively “hg It contains a great many seeds and has but little 
pulpy matte 
INDIAN ARCHIPELAGO. 
e Philippines and the Indian Archipelago are regarded as the 
tet regions in bananas.  Blanco's researches were chiefly confined 
to those of ie Philippine islands. He divides them into two classes, 
the A oe ae thick-skinned Aid and the second thin-skinned 
anan mentions that tkere were 57 varieties known in the 
islands, and m puni and names 18 of them. The most esteemed 
sort is saba-bisco, with a fruit 3 inches long by 1 thick, 3-5 angular 
The /acatan has the fruits crowned with the persistent corolla. One 
human thig ard long 
cooked it resembles in taste that of ps tandok. The Negritoes say 
the raceme produces but one fruit,” nco is careful to add that he 
In Lucon, Née observed 27 varieties of ssa but he has not given 
their names nor any remarks upon them 
Rumph appears to have known more about bananas than any one. He 
has given an accurate description of the plants, and he divided them into 
three groups, as follows:—(1) The cultivated or domesticated bananas ; 
(2) the Alphurian bananas, with leaves on the rachis; and (3) the 
wild bananas. His detailed Gaini of the varieties are very care- 
fully drawn up. Some of the kinds enumerated by him are as follows :— 
Pisang tando (horn-like). No doubt similar to the one called 
tanduk or tandok at the present time. If the cluster is reduced to a 
single fruit, the latter becomes exceptionally large. The whole bunch 
or spadix has usually only two or three clusters. Pisang gabba-gabba 
is smaller than the preceding, becoming white in ripening. It has the 
driest aan of all, which is like the spongy pith of the Sago palm, called 
[1j gabba- » 
Pisang qieitiig (needle banana). The fruit is short, nearly trigonous 
and terminating in a long snout, which is crow e with a thread-like 
appendage (the marcescent style), hence the na The skin adheres 
to the reddish pulp, which glitters like sugar rS Ben ct gens broken. 
It is said “ to bear racemes 7 feet long with 17 clusters 
o2 
