MUSA PARADISIACA. 
55 
to nearly spherical, and in colour from dark red to pale green. The plants which 
have fruited in the stoves of this country (and this has happened frequently for the 
last century, and is attended with no great difficulty), have been uniformly of a pale 
vellow colour, insipid or nearly tasteless, which indeed is almost the general 
character given them by Europeans, even by many of those who have eaten them 
in the tropics. 
Having now given the most general uses to which this fruit is applied in an 
edible po-int of view, we may mention some of the many domestic purposes to 
which other parts of the plant are applied ; the leaves are used as a thatch for 
buildings, they are woven into mats for many purposes, serving- as dishes, &c. ; and 
are worked into baskets, and other fancy articles ; they yield flax in abundance, from 
which some of the most expensive mushns of India are manufactured ; we believe 
M. Telejcis produces that most valued. Decandolle states, that their spiral vessels 
exist in such abundance in the stem (which is formed by the united petioles of the 
leaves), as to be capable of being pulled out by handfuls, and actually collected in 
the West Indies and sold as a kind of tinder. 
In addition to those kinds noticed for their value to mankind, there are many 
others known, several of which are cultivated in our stoves for their stateliness and 
magnificent foliage, which, when combined with their beautiful spathaceous flowers, 
are objects of peculiar interest. Musa rosacea, and M. coccinea, have been long- 
known in this country for the ornamental effect they render when introduced 
among other plants ; and being of a dwarf habit, they are well adapted as decorations 
at balls or assemblies given by the great, their noble foliage giving- an air of 
grandeur to such scenes. The species best known in this country are four, viz., 
M. paradisiaca, M. sapientum, M. rosacea, and M. coccinea ; a separate wood-cut 
of each will be found in the succeeding pages, accompanied with the habit, culture, 
and other distinctive particulars connected with them, so as to point out the most 
essential points of resemblance and dissimilarity known to exist in the genus. 
MUSA PARADISIACA ; OR, COMMON PLANTAIN. 
This species, trivially called the Common Plantain, was introduced to this 
country prior to the termination of the sixteenth century. It differs from the 
M. sapientum, or Banana Tree ; first, in the absence of dark purple stripes 
and spots on the stem ; secondly, in its fruit being more of an oblong shape, and 
somewhat longer, with a more firm pulp, and less pleasant to the taste. The 
Botanical distinctions are as follow : Stem herbaceous, of a light, clear, green 
colour, rising from twenty to twenty-four feet high. Leaves something paler in 
j colour than the stem, measuring, in a full grown specimen, from six to seven feet 
in length, by two or more in breadth. Spadix or flower spike, springing from the 
centre of the leaves, inclining to one side, frequently measuring four feet and a half 
