16 
enough to prepare the following notes respecting the experiments 
now being carried on in that part of the world in cultivating 
Manila hemp :— 
> 
fibre of proper strength is so small that it does not pay to extract. 
It is from a cultivated variety that marketable Manila hemp is 
obtained. 
The wild plant of Musa textilis is known by the natives as 
Saying Grolei or Gerólei, and the fibre-yielding variety as 
I 
appearance Musa textilis varies very little from M. paradisiaca, the 
ordinary banana, but a sharp eye will soon notice that the leaves are 
narrower and more pointed, and of a paler or more sea-green 
colour, while the stems are of a dark pickled-cabbage colour with 
broad irregular streaks of a dirty green. 
Musa textilis requi yuable cli an M. paradisiaca, 
and does not thrive in any country in which there isa distinct dry 
season ; it also demands a good soil and a warm temperature. Its 
present cultivation is restricted almost entirely to certain parts of 
the Philippine Islands and to the adjacent coast of Borneo. 
fact, the requisite eonditions of climate and soil are found in that 
+ Po | 
again, although it prefers rain every two or three days, it does not 
like a continuously wet season. Even in the Philippines its range 
otherwise be the case. When the plants are well up, however, 
is best to cut down all other large plants, and the plantation will 
then take care of itself with only one day’s going over every 
three months or so. 
Almost any lay of land will do for Manila hemp as long as it 
is not too swampy or too steep, but it thrives best on rich flat land, 
and does not much mind a flood as long as the water does not 
stop too long on the land or leave it swampy afterwards. 
Manila hemp suckers take longer to sprout than the ordinary 
banana, and send up fewer shoots, but in three weeks or so from 
the time the sucker is put in, if the weather is fairly favourable, 
the first shoot will be seen, which will be succeeded by one or 
+ 
