129 



AGRICULTURAL BULLETIN 



OF THE 



STRAITS 



AND 



FEDERATED MALAY STATES. 



No. 7.] APEIL, 1908. VOL. VI 



HELICONIAS. 



The beautiful plants known as Heliconias so commonly cultivated 

 in tropical gardens belong to the large order of Scitamineac, and to the 

 section Musaceae. The genus is largely represented in America, be- 

 tween thirty and forty kinds being known, but there are also several 

 species, and those among the most popular in cultivation which occur 

 from the Polynesian islands as far west as Amboina. By some extraordi- 

 nary error these, or most of these Asiatic species, have been considered 

 by Schumann (in the Pflanzenreich, Musaceae, page 36) as escaped 

 forms of the utterly dissimilar H. Bihai, L. of the West Indies. 

 Nicholson, in the Gardener's Dictionary supplement, boldly says that 

 H. aureostriata and other species w r ell known in cultivation are not 

 Heliconias at all but till more is known of them had better be left 

 among the plants of this genus. 



Nearly all the ornamental Asiatic and Polynesian species in 

 cultivation have flowered in the Singapore Botanic Gardens and 

 prove to be utterly different from H. Bihai, L. and very distinct 

 species. The whole genus may be said to be in a distinctly chaotic state, 

 and the descriptions as published in the Pflanzenreich are too meagre 

 for the most part for any one to identify the species. A few species 

 have been flowered in the Kew Conservatories and are figured in the 

 Botanical Magazine. These are chiefly Brazilian or West Indian 

 species. Unfortunately, however, the whole of the literature on these 

 plants is not accessible to me here, and many of the Asiatic species 

 have been introduced without accurate localities being given, having 

 been treated apparently always as forms of H. Bihai and simply all 

 lumped together. 



Heliconias have always been favourite plants for cultivation here, 

 and used to form a very conspicuous feature of our Horticultural 

 exhibitions, the most popular being the beautiful H. illustris, Bull., 

 (commonly known here as H. rubrostriata) and II . aureostriata. The 

 plants are readily propagated by breaking up the clump, and taking 

 off shoots in the same way as is done for bananas. Occasionally they 

 produce ripe seed but that is not very common. They are cultivated 

 as pot-plants, in good soil or in shady spots on lawns where they 



