266 
do not apply to the varieties. At Angola, Welwitgeh met with a very 
ornamental variety of M. sapientum, which named M. sang inea. 
In this the “leaves and fruit are strongly “Sted with blood-red.” 
Another ornamental plant, also belonging to M. sapientum, and from 
West Africa, is M. vittata figured in Bot. Mag t. 5402. This has 
the leaves and long fruits copiously striped with white, The bracts 
are bright red inside.” It was imperted into this country in the first 
instance from the Portuguese island of Sac Thomé, in the Gulf of 
Guinea. 
Burton (Central Africa, p. 58) states cl in the Aid countries 
around Uganda there are about a dozen varieti he best fruit 
is that grown by the Arabs at Unyanyem Upon the 
Tanganyika Lake there is a variety called now t hembu, c or glephanse: 
hands, which is considered larger than the Indian iiim ain. The 
skin is of a brickdust-red, in places inclining to rusty-brown ; the 
is dull yellow with black seeds, and the Aous i is harsh, strong, and 
drug-like. 
Stanley ae Umen I. p. 252) refers to specimens of plan- 
tains found beyond Yambuya that were “22 inches long, 2} 
inches in diameter, and nearly 8 inches round, is arge enough to 
furnish even Saat Tato, the hunter, with his long-desired full meal." 
Again, at Bokokoro, ** some plantains, measured here were 174 inches 
in length, and as thick as the forearm 
+ 
Mavritius and MADAGASCAR. 
Bojer (Hort. Maur., p. 331) mentions that in 1837 bananas and 
plantains were widely “cultivated in Mauritius, Madagasear, Mozam- 
vias and the Comoro Islands. 
He enumerates 17 species and varieties cultivated at Mauritius, and 
gives both the Creole and Malagasy names as far as he knew th 
ere are two species specially mentioned producing seeds, and these 
he calls bananier á gra ines: (1) Musa sapientum, L. of the East 
les, 
thrives also without cultivation on the sites of abandoned gardens and 
other localities in the hilly district of Flaeq and the mountains of la 
Nouvelle Découverte; and (2) Musa glauca, Roxb., grown under eul- 
watched to obtain it in a perfectly ripe condition. The | stems of this 
banana abound in fibre of excellent quality." 
The fruits of Musa paradisiaca (of Bojer) are ealled Akundru lika- 
lika by the natives of Madagascar, while the French call them bananes 
jer enumerates the following kinds :— 
Akundru bara-baha of the Malgachees (bananes malgaches vertes) : 
fruits resembling those of akundru lika-lika, but they a o shorter a 
more curved. Skin green, the pulp white, soft, and swee 
Akundru minetine; fruit straight, cylindrical, green ai Nn; 
pulp. whitish, very sweet. A variet y of this has the fruits very like 
