X, C, 6 
Teodoro: Philippine Bananas 
385 
thorough anatomical studies. Attempts to classify the species of 
Musa supposed to include the cultivated varieties, without this 
study of all the varieties, leads only to uncertainty and confusion. 
In fact no one to-day seems quite certain how to use the original 
names sapientum and paradisiaca, and their standing must re- 
main purely nominal as species, until fuller studies are made. 
To make one a variety of the other is purely a matter of 
personal opinion. Since the matter of species of cultivated ba- 
nanas is not of immediate importance nor possible of definition 
with our present knowledge, attention is focussed in this work 
on varieties, since it is only by this means that the bananas can 
ever be brought into order or understood. For temporary pur- 
poses I use the names sapientum and paradisiaca in the com- 
monly accepted sense. 
The only previous attempt at a botanical study of Philippine 
bananas was made by Blanco. 12 He wrongly uses the specific 
name paradisiaca for the ordinary types of sweet bananas and 
gives Latin names to the varieties, and these names must be con- 
sidered in any attempt at botanical classification. Blanco states 
that there were at least 57 varieties known in the Philippines in 
1837. Much more detailed attention than has been given to 
this subject is necessary before the varieties of Rumphius, 
Blanco, Hasskarl, Loureiro, and others can be brought together 
into one harmonious system. Blanco uses the specific name 
trogloditarum to include the variety botoan, the wild saguing 
machin, the abaca, and the virgen, which are probably four 
distinct species none of which is near trogloditarum, with erect 
inflorescence, and which Baker places as a variety of sapientum. 
I shall employ Blanco’s varietal names until they are proved 
synonymous with extra-Philippine names. Some of Blanco’s 
descriptions are easily recognizable, and others are fortunately 
represented by well-known Tagalog names, so that all of his 
names can be fixed with certainty, except in the one case of the 
colossal variety ulnaris, which he described from hearsay and 
which no one has seen since his time. 
Barrett 13 mentions 159 numbers of Philippine bananas as 
occurring in the Bureau of Agriculture collections at Singalong. 
Many of the names used in this list are merely synonyms, being 
interchangeable in their application. I greatly regret not hav- 
ing had access to that collection in connection with this work. 
Some of the cultivated bananas of the Philippines, notably 
“Flora de Filipinas (1837) 239-250; ed. 2 (1845) 168 et seq. 
“Phil. Agr. Rev. 6 (1913) 436. 
