408 
The Philippine Joimial of Science 
1915 
This is a distinct variety, which we have in culture; it will be 
critically examined later. Its name is sometimes spelled tenon- 
baga or tumbaga. 
MUSA SAP I ENTUM L. var. COMPRESSA (Blanco). Saba. Plate VII, 
figs. 1-5. 
Musa paradisiaca compressa Blanco. 
Produces 14 or more flowering stems in a stool. Characterized 
by the deep green skin of the trunk. The whole plant reaches 
a height of from 480 to 500 cm or even higher and has a diameter 
of from 32 to 35 cm at the base. 
The leaves are broad, thick and leathery, deep green and shiny 
above, waxy below, from 264 to 267 cm long and from 81 to 83 
cm wide; petiole from 69 to 78 cm long. 
The spike bears about 11 hands of mature fruits. 
The flowers (Plate XVII, figs. 1, 2, and 3) are of medium size, 
from 16 to 19 in a fascicle, from 6.5 to 7 cm long and from 1 to 1.3 
cm wide ; the perigonium with shallow sinuses ; the scale is often 
shaded with pinkish, the surface rounded with acute tip, two- 
thirds as long as perigonium; stamens shorter than pistil or as 
long as perigonium ; the stigma is short-lobed. 
The fruits are usually large and flattish with a long pedicel, 
from 17 to 18 cm long, slightly tapering toward the tip, and 
usually 5-angled; seeds present, but few; skin thick and yellow 
when ripe; the pulp coarse and white with a more or less de- 
veloped core. Not palatable when raw, but excellent when 
cooked. The average weight of a mature fruit is 74.21 grams. 
Blanco’s description of this variety is translated as follows: 34 
Stem cylindrical, formed by the petioles of the leaves, which serve as 
sheath. This is characteristic of all bananas. Leaves elliptical, elongated, 
very large. Flowers all hermaphrodite, placed in a common receptacle, 
provided with bracts, or large spathes, monophyllous, ovate, imbricated, 
which receptacle elongates greatly as the flowers develop. Each bract 
covers about twelve small flowers. Corolla of two petals; the upper one 
has the limb split into five parts; the three terminate in small hoods, the 
other two upper ones smaller, without hoods, and emerge from the interior 
part between the divisions of the first three. The lower petal without a 
depression outside. Stamens, five perfect and the sixth rudimentary. 
Anthers very long and covered with abundant pollen. Style a little 
longer than the stamens. Stigma thick, compressed, with protuberances. 
The fruit usually is a little more than 3 inches in length and 1 in thickness, 
with three angular ridges, although it frequently has even five, formed by 
mutual compression of the fruit. Each raceme has sometimes, although 
rarely, more than four hundred fruits crowned with flowers even at 
maturity. This banana plant, called in some parts of the Islands bisco, 
34 FI. Filip, ed. 2 (1845) 168. 
