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SPECIES AND PRINCIPAL VARIETIES OF MUSA. 

 [K.B., 1894, pp. 229-314.] 



The tribe Musece forms a part of the important Natural Order 

 SciTAMlXE^E, which includes numerous economic plants such as Arrow- 

 root, Turmeric, Cardamoms, Ginsrer, and Cannas. It embraces four genera, 

 all of interest : — Heliconia, Musa, Strelitzia, and Ravenala. The 

 Heliconias are natives of the New World, and represent in habit the 

 wild Musas of the Old. The Musas themselves include the wild and 

 cultivated bananas and plantains, and are indigenous to the Old World and 

 Polynesia. The Strelitzias are plants with distichous leaves, and their 

 flowers are large, white, blue, or orange coloured ; they are restricted to 

 South Africa. The Ravenalas, two species only, are found in such widely- 

 separated countries as Madagascar and Guiana. They are the well-known 

 " Travellers'-palms," whose leaves on long stalks arranged like the ribs 

 of a fan are striking objects in many tropical countries. 



Musas are the largest of tree-like herbs, often attaining, with the 

 leaves, a height of 25 to 40 feet. They have not inappropriately been 

 compared by Meneghini and Achille Richard to " gigantic leeks." These 

 plants can be grown over an immense area of the earth's surface, and 

 are found either wild or cultivated from 38° N. lat. to 35° S, lat. 



There are about 40 described species of Musa known (in various 

 parts of the world) and about one-half of these are now under cultivation 

 in this country. The edible-fruited species seem to have migrated with 

 mankind into all the climates in which they can be grown, and are 

 universally cultivated in the equatorial zone for purposes of shade and 

 food. Le Maout and Decaisne say : — 



" Bananas and plantains afford such desirable food that their cultiva- 

 tion is not less important in the tropics than that of cereals and farinaceous 

 tubers in temperate regions." 



In West Africa, Monteiro {Angola and the Conge. T., 294) speaks 

 thus of these plants : — 



" Bananas and plantains grow magnificently where the rich moist earth 

 in which they delight is found, . . . and they rear their magnifi- 

 cent leaves unbroken by a breath of air. A grove of banana trees thus 

 growing luxuriantly in a forest clearing is one of the most beautiful 



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