38 



do not apply to the varieties. At Angola, Welwitsch met with a very 

 ornamental variety of M. sapientum, which he named M. sanguinea. 

 In this the "leaves and fruit are strongly tinged with blood-red." 

 Another ornamental plant, also belonging to M. sapientum, and from 

 West Africa, is M. vittdta 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 imported into this country in the first 

 instance from the Portuguese island of Sao Thome, in the Gulf of 

 Guinea. 



Burton {Central Africa, p. 58) states that in the hilly countries 

 around Uganda there are about a dozen varieties. . . . The best fruit 

 is that grown by the Arabs at Unyanyembe. . . . Upon the 

 Tanganyika Lake there is a variety called mikous Vhembu, or elephant's- 

 hands, which is considered larger than the Indian horse-plantain. The 

 skin is of a brickdust-red, in places inclining to rusty-brown ; the pulp 

 is dull yellow with black seeds, and the flavour is harsh, strong, and 

 drug-like. 



Stanley {Darkest Africa, 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, large enough to 

 furnish even Saat Tato, the hunter, with his long-desired full meal." 

 Again, at Bokokoro, " some plantains measured here were 17^ inches 

 in length, and as thick as the forearm." 



Mauritius and Madagascar. 



Bojer {Hort. Maur., p. 331) mentions that in 1837 bananas and 

 plantains were widely cultivated in Mauritius, Madagascar, Mozam- 

 bique, 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 them. 



There are two species specially mentioned producing seeds, and these 

 he calls bananier a graines: (1) Musa sapientum, L. of the East 

 Indies, grown near dwellings in various quarters of the island. It 

 thrives also without cultivation on the sites of abandoned gardens and 

 other localities in the hilly district of Flacq and the mountains of la 

 Nouvelle Decouverte ; and (2) Musa glauca, Roxb., grown under cul- 

 tivation in many parts of the island, but said to flower very rarely. It 

 is probable that the first of these is the true banana with seeds 

 (bananier a graines), and therefore to be regarded as representing the 

 wild form of M. sapientum. In a note just received from Mr. John 

 Home, F.L.S., late Director of Gardens and Forests at Mauritius, he 

 writes : — " I know the bananier a graines, and I have raised it from 

 seed. Every clump of this (wild in the mountains) is known to the 

 Coolies and Creoles who readily eat the fruit, which must therefore be 

 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 called Akundru lika- 

 lika by the natives of Madagascar, while the French call them bananes 

 malgaches. Bojer enumerates the following kinds : — 



Akundru bara-baha of the Malgachees {bananes malgaches vertes) : 

 fruits resembling those of akundru lika-lika, but they are shorter and 

 more curved. Skin green, the pulp white, soft, and sweet. 



Akundru minetine ; fruit straight, cylindrical, green turning brown ; 

 pulp whitish, very sweet. A variety of this has the fruits very like 



