BANANA CULTURE IN HAWAII 5 
for rapid growth. The crude plant food which has been absorbed 
by the roots and carried up the. ..stem is transformed in the leaf, 
Whence it is distributed where needed to build plant tissue. 
FLOWERS 
The following is a brief description of the floral parts: 
The ovary, or basal part of the pistillate flower, later becomes 
the fruit. The ovaries of neutral and staminate flowers remain 
rudimentary and perish. The perianth, corresponding to the calyx 
of any typical, complete flower, is the protective covering of 
the more delicate, essential organs known as stamens and pistils. 
The corolla is much modified in the banana flower, usually being 
represented by a single free petal, with sometimes three petals, as in 
the Ice Cream variety and the common plantain. The petal usually 
holds the nectar surrounding the base of the style. Normally, there 
are six stamens, but in most seedless varieties only five, the sixth 
being very rudimentary, or wanting. The anthers, the extreme por- 
tions of normal stamens, contain the pollen. On reaching maturity 
they split lengthwise along the margin, exposing the inner surfaces 
and releasing pollen grains. The exposed surfaces gradually turn 
dark in a few hours after the flowers open. The portion of the pistil 
extending from the apex of the ovary consists of a slim style sur- 
mounted by a more or less globular stigma, the surface showing- 
evidence of several lobes, usually six in number. 
The inflorescence of the banana, which undoubtedly has under- 
gone many modifications since it first became known to man, is of 
much interest and importance. Its variations are numerous but of a 
constancy permitting their use as a most reliable basis for systemati- 
cally distinguishing the varieties. 2 The flowering stalk grows up 
through the center of the trunk, appearing under normal conditions 
at the top in the form of a large bud when the trunk is about 9 or 
10 months old. The flower bud develops rapidly, and, as it increases 
in size its weight causes it to hang pendant from the plant. 3 
Botanically, the inflorescence is of the monoecious type, the flowers 
in most species and varieties being pistillate, neutral, or staminate. 
the last two kinds closely resembling one another (pi. 1, A). 
The flowers are spirally arranged on the flower stalk in consecutive 
clusters extending from the base to the apex. One or two of the 
clusters open at a time. Usually the pistillate flowers open in four 
to seven days. Each developing cluster, consisting of two trans- 
verse rows having few to 20 or more flowers, depending upon the 
variety and conditions of growth, is completely protected by a thick, 
close-fitting, leaflike bract varying in shape and color with the dif- 
ferent species and varieties. In color the outward surface of the 
bracts may be purple, claret, or reddish-brown, powdered with a 
frostlike bloom, and the inner surface may be red, pink, purple, vio- 
- Flowers should be chosen for study when they have reached a certain definite point of 
growth. Pistillate flowers, for example, should be examined aboul the time the last 
cluster is opening; ;i day or two later the neutral flowers nay be Been; and two days 
later still the staminate flowers will have developed. 
■In The Kusaie and Fei varieties tin- scape with inflorescence remains erect. A strain 
of the Cavendish banana produces two or more flowering stalks within a single trunk, 
whereas the native Hawaiian variety Mahoe produces a single flower stalk which divides 
midway of the cluster and bears twin bunches of fruit (pi. 2, A). 
