17 



fertile. Stamens often six or more. Fruit ovate-oblong, edible, seed- 

 less; According to Loureiro this is a native of Cochin -China, where it 

 is called Chuoi duii. It is, however, unknown to M. Pierre. Mr. 

 Baker thinks it may be a form of M. Cavendishii, Lamb, with a taller 

 stem and staminate flowers abortive. M. Rhinozerotis, of Kurz, said, to 

 be like M. nana, but with all the sheaths of the leaves enveloping one 

 another, and with persistent bracts and flowers all fertile, is unknown 

 at Kew. 



11. M. glauca, Roxb. Not stoloniferous. Trunk cylindrical, 10- 

 12 feet high, 6-8 inches diameter. Leaves oblong-lanceolate, acute, 

 4—5 feet long, pale and glaucous ; shortly petioled. Spike drooping 

 from the base ; bracts greenish, persistent. Fruit oblong, 4-5 inches 

 long, 1^ inches diameter ; truncate at the apex, narrowed gradually to 

 the sessile base. Seeds smooth, globose, nearly black, ^-inch diameter. 

 Pegu ; introduced to the Calcutta Botanical Garden by Mr. F. Carey in 

 1810. This has flowers like M. superba, and a cylindrical trunk like 

 M. sapientum. Roxburgh in his Coromandel Plants, iii. 96, adds, 

 " Like my M. superba it never produces suckers, consequently it must 

 be reared from seed, which it furnishes in great abundance ; the fruit 

 containing little else, even fit for a monkey to eat." 



12. M. acuminata, Colla (M. simiarum, Rumph) ; M. rumphiana, 

 Kurz. Stem high, cylindrical, stoloniferous at the base. Leaves 

 oblong, 5-6 feet long, glaucous beneath, deltoid at the base, firmer 

 than those of M. sapientum; petiole 1-1^ feet long, almost with- 

 out any membranous edge. Spike drooping, shorter than the leaves ; 

 male flowers deciduous ; bracts lanceolate or oblong-lanceolate, violet, 

 only one of those of the female flowers opened at once and revolute, 

 those of the male clusters involute at the edge. Calyx white or 

 yellowish, 1-1£ inches long ; petal ovate-acuminate, nearly as long as the 

 calyx. Fruit in 4-6 clusters of 10-12 each, oblong, rostrate, 2-4 inches 

 long, 1-H inches diameter ; skin not easily peeled off ; flesh sweet. Seeds 

 dull black,angled by pressure, J inch diameter. Distribution: — Common 

 in Java and the other Malay islands extending eastward to New Guinea. 

 Kurz, who studied this species carefully on the spot, says that a 

 large proportion of the bananas which are cultivated in the Malay 

 Archipelago are derived from it, and that its best varieties are superior 

 to all those derived from M. sapientum in quality and delicacy. 

 Typical M. acuminata is wild and has fruit full of seed. From this 

 several seedless cultivated varieties are derived, differing in the colour 

 of the leaves and fruit. They all have the leaves glaucous beneath, and 

 in one form the waxy bloom is so copious that torches are made from it. 

 Var. violacea, Kurz, has its stems, leaves and flowers more or less 

 tinged with dark purple, and purple 3-5 angled fruit with a thick 

 beak. Its native name is u pisang teembaya " or " pisang hoorang " 

 (copper or crab plantain). Var. culta, Kurz, is larger in all its parts, with 

 much larger whitish or yellowish flowers, and longer cylindrical or angled 

 yellow or greenish seedless fruit. Of this there are 48 distinguishable 

 forms, of which the most curious is the Duck plantain ( M pisang moo- 

 look bebbek "), the fruit of which has a beak nearly as long as its body. 

 Baker refers here M. paradisiaca, Zollinger. Probably M. Bertrri, 

 Colla (M. alphurica, Rumph), which has green and leaf-like lower bracts 

 and pale yellow ripe fruit a span long, is a variety of this species. 

 Nothing is known of M. Karang, Kurz, of whicli the fruit is said to 

 be angular, short, and thick-beaked, and the bracts yellow inside. 



23099 B 



