32 



flowers deciduous ; male bracts crowded, oblong, pale crimson. Fruit 

 small 3-4 inches long, fusiform with a very broad truncate apex. 

 Distribution : — Assam. Described from a plant that flowered at Kew, 

 March 1893. [Seedlings of this crossed with M. rosacea, are now at 

 Kew.] 



*35. M. aurantiaca, Mann. Herb. Habit of M. sanguinea, but forming 

 large clumps of rather lower stems. Bracts bright orange yellow, 

 glabrous. Calyx yellow. Fruit green, glabrous. Distribution : — 

 Forests of Upper Assam. Differs mainly from M. sanguinea by its 

 orange-coloured bracts. 



Cultivated Varieties. 



Some of the cultivated varieties of bananas and plantains known in 

 different parts of the world have already been mentioned in connection 

 with the species described in the preceding section. There are, how- 

 ever, numerous varieties whose origin cannot, in every instance, be 

 clearly traced. There is a good deal of confusion existing also as to 

 what are varieties and what are mere forms. In fact, the information 

 available in regard to cultivated bananas is in need of being thoroughly 

 sifted and arranged. In the present state of our knowledge it is only 

 possible to enumerate the various sorts under their vernacular names, 

 and to add a few notes giving their special or most prominent 

 characters. This may more conveniently be done under the principal 

 geographical regions in which they are found. The principal autho- 

 rities cited are the following :— Rumph, Herb. Amboinense, vol. v., 

 pp. 125-137 ; Blanco, Flor. Filip., pp. 239-246 ; Firminger's Manual 

 of Gardening for India, ed. 3, pp. 179-181; Bojer's Hortus Mauriti- 

 anus, pp. 331-332 ; Sagot in Journ. Soc. Hort. France (1887), 

 pp. 238-285 ; Kurz in Journ. Agri.-Hort. Soc. India, n.s., vol. v., 

 pp. 112-163 ; Diaz, El Agricultor Venezolano (1877), pp. 37-43 ; 

 Harrison and Jenman, Report on Agricultural Work, British Guiana, 

 1890, pp. 56-62. 



India. 



" In such a large empire as India one might expect," says Kurz, 

 " to find the greatest variety of bananas, but such is not the case." 

 The Philippine Islands and the Indian Archipelago are richest, and, on 

 the authority of Moon, Ceylon comes next. The varieties appear to 

 decrease rapidly as we travel northward from the equator. Roxburgh 

 states that he obtained in India only three varieties of the " plantain " 

 and about 30 varieties of the " banana." Rheede (1678-1703) 

 appears to be the first authority that wrote intelligently on the bananas 

 and plantains of India. He gives them the Malabar name of bald. 

 In the first volume of his Hortus Malabar icus, pp. 17-20, he enumerates 

 and illustrates several varieties : neudera bald with oblong red fruits ; 

 caduli-bald with a thin skin and pulp of pleasant taste ; puam- 

 bald with terete fruits with a good taste ; mannem-bald with four- 

 cornered fruits and a thick skin ; canim-bald producing no other flowers 

 but fertile ones, has the fruits small and yellow when ripe ; caJrni- 

 bald has the fruits full of black seeds and a rather thick skin. 



In Madras a sort known as guindy is considered the best as a dessert 

 fruit. It is round, small-sized, with a very thin rind, luscious, sweet, 

 and of a most delicate flavour. " A good bunch may contain over a 

 thousand fruits" (Diet. Econ. Products of India, vol. v., p. 293). 

 This kind is used entirely as a table fruit, being considered too valuable 



