^6 
AMBA MANUT 
" We were treated with much attention by the master of the 
mansion ; but our food, kc. was all brought over from the village 
where we had been first pressed to stop. 
" I had seen in coming in, a plant very like the Ensete of Bruce; 
on examination in the evening it proved to be a new species of 
Musa. It grows from thirty to forty feet high ; the trunk or stem 
is bare (when the first leaves have withered away), about fifteen 
feet from the ground ; here about twelve leaves branch out, in- 
casing each other at their base, as in the plantain. The mid-rib 
of each leaf is bare for about two feet and a half before the spread- 
ing part of the leaf commences, and is at the back of a bright red 
colour. The leaf is about four feet across at the broadest part, 
about twenty feet long, and pointed at the end. The fruit springs 
from the centre or body of the plant, and is protected when young 
by four or five small, but strong leaves, which firmly embrace the 
whole cluster. The parts of the flower are very similar to the 
plantain, as in appearance is the fruit, but it differs decidedly from 
it in being filled with hard irregular-shaped seeds, each of the 
size of a hazel nut ; the form of the plant maybe learned from the 
drawing of the mountains of Adowe, where it again occurred.* The 
thermometer was 64. 
" August 2,4, — The lady of the house, who was sister-in-law to 
the wife of Subagadis, paid us a visit in the morning ; she was far 
inferior to the latter both in personal charms and in manners. 
I presented her with a looking-glass and some beads ; but she was 
dissatisfied with them ; nevertheless, on our going, she took them 
away. The Chiefs also of the villages that we had passed the day 
* This Musa is growing in the conservatory of Lord Valentia. 
