6 BULLETIN 55, HAWAII EXPERIMENT STATION 
let, yellow, orange, brown, or a blend of several of these colors, which 
are well displayed when the bract is raised as it rolls back at the top. 
About this time the flowers beneath the bracts may be visited by in- 
sects in search of nectar. After completing its work of protecting 
and displaying the flowers, each bract falls. In the Chinese or 
Cavendish variety the bracts covering the staminate flowers are 
persistent (pi. 2, B). 
The pistillate flowers are the most important of the several kinds 
forming the inflorescence, particularly the ovaries, which eventually 
become the fruit. The number of clusters under favorable conditions 
varies from six to nine or even more, some varieties producing a 
greater number than others. The ovary is about two-thirds the 
length of the pistillate flower, and has three seed compartments with 
many well-distributed ovules, which in the seedless banana remain 
small and imperfect. The apex of the ovary supports the other 
floral parts, including the central style, which is surmounted with a 
plump, six-lobed stigma and surrounded by a whorl of five short, im- 
perfect stamens. 4 
The floral envelope is considerably modified. The outer and 
longer portion is the perianth, and is said to consist of three sepals 
and two rudimentary petals all united, but indicated by the five lobes 
at the end. The third and separate petal representing the corolla is 
short, wide, deeply cupped on the inner side, and lipped at the edges. 
In color these floral parts may be pale cream, yellow, red, or streaked, 
depending upon the variety. The cups of the petals of the three 
kinds of flowers secrete a clear, viscid nectar of sweet, pleasant flavor. 
In the Iholena group the nectar has the consistency of jelly, which 
was a delicacy eagerly sought by the early Hawaiians. 
In the neutral flowers the stamens and pistils are usually unde- 
veloped, and the ovary is half the length of the flower. Fertile 
pollen grains are rarely found in the stamens, and only few varieties 
in Hawaii, such as the Bluefields and Lady Finger, have neutral 
flowered ovaries developing into fruits. 
The male or staminate flowers are arranged in clusters more at 
the end of the inflorescence. Each flower normally possesses live prom- 
inent stamens, usually extending beyond the other parts (pi. 1, B). 
The anthers, or pollen sacks, are long and marked in color, but in 
most varieties possess no pollen. However, abundance of pollen was 
found by the writer in the anthers of staminate flowers of the vari- 
eties Bluefields, Popoulu, Iholena, Lele, Kapua, abaca, Borabora, 
and Maia Oa. Pollen grains collected from well-developed stamens 
of pistillate flowers of the last three-mentioned varieties and ex- 
amined under a compound microscope were found to be spherical 
in shape and white or yellowish in color. The grains are connected 
in chains until fairly mature, when they split apart. The pistil is 
short and undeveloped. The ovary is only about one-third the 
length of the flower. Usually the perianth and the corolla petal are 
more highly colored than other parts of the flower, and, like the 
same organs in the pistillate flower, have colors peculiar to the 
variety. 
4 In some species the stamens are perfect, and occasionally a sixth stamen is present. 
