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localities, and this is one of the reasons, why it is so exten- 
sively cultivated in the South Sea Islands. The yield of 
fruit is profuse (as much as 200 to 300 fruits in a spike), 
and the flavor excellent. This as well as M. sapientum and 
M. paradisiaca ripen still their fruits in Madeira and 
Tlorida. 
Musa Ensete, Gmelin. 
Bruce’s Banana. Brom Sofala to Abyssinia, in mountain 
regions. This magnificent plant attains a height of 30 feet, 
the leaves occasionally reaching to the length of 20 feet, 
with a width of 3 feet, being perhaps the largest in the whole 
empire of plants, exceeding those of Strelitzia and Bavenala, 
and surpassing even in quadrat-measurement those of the 
grand water-plant Victoria Begia, while excelling in com- 
parative circumference also the largest compound frond of 
Angiopteris evecta, or divided leaf of Glodwinia Gligas, 
though the compound leaves of some palms are still larger. 
The inner part of the stem, and the young spike of the 
Ensete can be boiled to serve as a table esculent, but the 
fruit is 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 Mger regions. 
Similar to M. Ensete ; seeds much smaller. Possibly re- 
quiring no protection here in favorable places. 
Musa paradisiaca, E. 
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 chiefly prepared by some 
cooking process. Only a few varieties are distinguished, 
and they seem to have sprung from the wild state of M_ 
sapientum. The writer did not wish to pass this and the 
