12 



Sub-genus Rhodochlamys, Baker. Stems slender, 

 cylindrical. Male flowers few to a bract. Fruit not 

 generally edible. Usually stoloniferous. 



Fruit edible ; bracts yellow-brown - - 24. M. maculata. 



Fruit not edible : 



Leaves large ; fruit distinctly stipitate - 25. M. sumatrana. 



Leaves smaller ; fruit not distinctly stipitate : 



Bracts pale or dark lilac : 



Petal shorter than the calyx - 26. M. violascens. 



Petal nearly or quite as long as 

 the calyx : 



Flowers yellow - - 27. M. rosacea. 



Flowers greenish - - 28. M. salaccensis. 



Bracts red : 



Fruit hairy - - - 29. M. velutina. 



Fruit glabrous : 



Petal nearly or quite as 

 long as the calyx : 



Bracts crimson - - 30. M. coccinea. 



Bracts pale red - - 31. M. rosea. 



Bracts blood-red - 32. M. sanguinea. 



Petal much shorter than 

 the calyx : 



Bracts bright red - 33. M. rubra. 



Bracts pale red - - 34. M. Mannii. 



Bracts bright orange - 35. M. aurantiaca. 



Sub-genus Physocauiis. 



Swollen-stemmed Musas. 



[An asterisk is prefixed to those species and varieties of which 

 examples are in cultivation at Kew.] 



*1. Musa Ensete, Gmel. Abyssinian Banana. Native name " Ensete." 

 Bot. Mag., t, 5223-4. North Gallery, No. 516. Whole plant 30-40 

 feet high. Stem swollen at the base, not stoloniferous. Leaves oblong 

 acute, sometimes 20 feet long and 3 feet broad with a red midrib. 

 Bracts densely imbricated 9 to 12 inches long, dark claret brown. Fruit 

 coriaceous, dry, 2 to 3 inches long. Seeds 1-4 black, glossy, nearly an 

 inch broad with a prominent raised border round the hilum. Distri- 

 bution : — Mountains of Abyssinia to the hills of equatorial Africa ; 

 southward of Victoria Nyanza Lake. The largest known banana. The 

 flowers of a specimen that flowered at Kew in 1878 are preserved in the 

 Kew Museum ; also a series of seeds from Abyssinia (Plowden) ; Nyanza 

 Lake (Kirk) ; prepared fibre from stem from Abyssinia (Plowden), 

 Jamaica (Morris), and a specimen grown at Kew. 



It was discovered by the traveller Bruce and is remarkable as being 

 represented on ancient Egyptian sculptures. Plants growing in the 



