26 BULLETIN 55, HAWAII EXPERIMENT STATION 
North Australia, and the Canary Islands, where it is being cultivated 
with success as a commercial banana. 
Plants. — From 8 to 12 feet high; trunks, erect or slightly reclining, 4 to 8 
feet long, 8 to 14 inches in diameter at base. Leaves, 8 to 10, spiral arrange- 
ment of petioles distinct, length 4 to 6 feet, short, stout petioles, green with pink 
or red margins; blades short and broad, glaucous, both sides joining petiole 
evenly (pi. 2, B). 
Floivers. — Pistillate, 8 to 9 centimeters long, ovary green, angular, slightly 
curved; perianth, small, drab, 5-lobed, yellow, rolled, middle lobes the largest. 
Petal, cream colored or translucent, keeled, apicula erect, pale yellow ; stamens, 
rudimentary ; pistil, style straight, slim, stigma irregularly lobed, yellowish to 
drab in color. 
Staminate flower 5.5 centimeters long, ovary clubbed, apple green in color ; 
perianth, whitish, 5-lobed, yellow, middle and two outside lobes long, two 
secondary small. Petal 1.8 centimeters long, translucent; apicula erect, cream 
colored, and with point of petal on each side of base. Stamens 5, long as pistil, 
anthers cream colored, darkening at margins with age. Style white, slim ; 
stigma small, irregularly lobed. The rachis often extends nearly to the ground 
and the dead staminate flowers and bracts are persistent. 
Fruit. — From 6 to 8 inches long, 1% to 2 inches in diameter, usually curved, 
angular when young, but without angles at full ripeness ; base tapering to 
short pedicel, apex blunt, skin yellow when ripe, medium thickness ; pulp, 
cream colored, sweet, and of pleasing flavor. The bunches vary from 50 to 
125 pounds, depending upon the culture. 
BLUEFIELDS OR GROS MICHEL 
About the year 1840 an improved type of banana was observed in 
Martinique, West Indies, and introduced by Jean Francisco Pouyat 
into Jamaica, where the variety was called the " Pouyat " or the 
"Martinique" (10, p. 155). It was the leading banana of Jamaica 
for many years, and became known as the Jamaica or Gros Michel 
after the banana industry in Costa Rica began to develop. The 
variety is now well established in Fiji, New Guinea, and .Queens- 
land, where it is known as the Gros Michel. It was introduced 
into Hawaii early in 1903 by Philip Peck, of Hilo, and by the 
Territorial Board of Agriculture and Forestry near the close of the 
same year (13, p. 42). The following year the station introduced 
130 "heads," or bases of large suckers (Ace. No. 72), from the port 
of Bluefields, Nicaragua. These reached Honolulu December 26, 
1904, via New Orleans and San Francisco. After this introduction 
the banana was generally known as the Bluefields (No. 4544). 
Botanically, it is a variety of Musa sapientum. 
Plants. — Tall, with upright trunks varying from 15. to 20 feet, 12 inches 
in diameter at the base; outer sheaths green, with blackish and reddish 
blotches. In some localities where there is an abundance of sunlight, the 
petioles and midribs of the underside of the leaves, as well as the younger 
growth, are washed with a cast of red. The plants sucker freely, forming large 
clumps. The bunches are on long, stout, well-curved steins, which hang nearly 
straight down. The hands of fruit are compact and stand nearly parallel with 
the stem. As the pistillate fruits are forming, the rachis continues to extend 
to considerable length, shedding its staminate flowers and developing a char- 
acteristic bend which is peculiar to few varieties (pi. 8, A). 
Flowers. — Pistillate, about 14 centimeters long; ovary, large, light green; 
perianth, whitish, with cast of brown appearing as streaks or splotches in a 
lew hours after exposure from under the rising bract; perianth lobes, 5, the 
two outer long and pointed, middle, short and wider, the two intermediate, 
small; all lobes tipped with yellow. Corolla consisting of a single free petal, 
white to iridescent. 2.8 centimeters long, broadly keeled, margin of sides 
turned inward, apicula turned inward and upward. Stamens, rudimentary 
and without anthers, pointed, shorter than perianth. Pistil, style stout, 
