FOR VICTORIAN INDUSTRIAL CULTURE. 



135 



pulpless. This plant produces no suckers, and requires 

 several years to come into flower and seed, when it dies off 

 like the Sago-plant, the Caryota-palm, and others, which 

 flower but once without reproduction from the root. 



Musa Livingstoniana, Kirk. 



Mountains of Sofala, Mozambique, and the Niger regions. 

 Similar to M. Ensete; seeds much smaller. Possibly requir- 

 ing no protection here in favourable places. 



Musa paradisiaca, Linne. 



The ordinary Plantain or Pisang. India. Among the most 

 prolific of plants, requiring the least care in climes adapted for 

 its growth. Stem not spotted. Bracts purple inside. In 

 this as well as the foregoing and the following, new shoots 

 are produced from the root, to replace annually the fruit- 

 bearing stem. The fruit of this is often prepared by some 

 cooking process. Very many varieties are distinguished, and 

 they seem to have sprung from the wild state of M. sapien- 

 tum. The writer did not wish to pass this and the allied 

 plants unnoticed, as they will endure our clime in the 

 warmest localities of the colony, where under more careful 

 attention they are likely to mature with regularity their 

 fruit. They require rich and humid soil. Plantain-meal is 

 prepared by simply reducing the dried pulp to powder. It is 

 palatable, digestible, and nourishing. — M. sapientum, L., the 

 ordinary Banana or Sweet Plantain, is a variety. It is one 

 of the most important plants yielding nutritious delicious 

 fruits. The stem is spotted. Bracts green inside. The 

 leaves and particularly the stalks and the stems of this and 

 other species of Musa can be utilised for producing a fibre 

 similar to Manilla Hemp. The fruit of this is used chiefly 

 unprepared; it is generally of a yellow colour. Numerous 

 varieties are distinguished. As much as a hundredweight of 

 fruit is obtained from a plant annually in tropical climes. At 

 Caracas, where the temperature is seldom much above or 

 below 60° F., the Plantain and Banana plants are very pro- 

 ductive, being loaded with fruits twelve to fifteen inches long, 

 on mountains about 6000 feet high. In our dry Murray re- 

 gions the winter temperature seems too low for the successful 

 development of these plants except on sheltered spots. Re- 

 quires infinitely less care within its geographic latitudes than 

 the potato; contains along with much starch also Protein 

 compounds. Many Indian populations live almost exclusively 

 on the fruit. 



Musa simiarum, Rumph. {M. comiculata, Loureiro; M. 

 acuminata, Co'l.) 

 From Malacca to the Sunda-Islands. About half-a-hundred 



