129 
AGRICULTURAL BULLETIN 
OF THE 
STRAITS 
AND 
FEDERATED MALAY STATES. 
No. 7.] APRIL, 1908. Vol. VI 
HELICONIAS. 
The beautiful plants known as Helieonias so commonly cultivated 
in tropical gardens belong to the large order of Scitamineae , and to the 
section Mmaceae. The genus is largely represented in America, be- 
tween thirty and forty kinds being known, but there are also several 
species, and those among the most popular in cultivation which occur 
from the Polynesian islands as far w^est as Amboina. By some extraordi- 
nary error these, or most of these Asiatic species, have been considered 
by Schumann (in the Pflanzenreich, Musaeeae, page 36) as escaped 
forms of the utterly, dissimilar II. Billed, L. of the West Indies. 
Nicholson, in the Gardener’s Dictionary supplement, boldly says that 
H. anreostriata and other species well known in cultivation are not 
Helieonias at all but till more is knowm of them had better be left 
among the plants of this genus. 
Nearly all the ornamental Asiatic and Polynesian species in 
cultivation have flowered in the Singapore Botanic Gardens and 
prove to be utterly different from H. Bihai, L. and very distinct 
species. The whole genus may be said to be in a distinctly chaotic state, 
and the descriptions as published in the Pflanzenreich are too meagre 
for the most part for any one to identify the species. A few species 
have been flowered in the Kew Conservatories and are figured in the 
Botanical Magazine. These are chiefly Brazilian or West Indian 
species. Unfortunately, however, the whole of the literature on these 
plants is not accessible to me here, and many of the Asiatic species 
have been introduced without accurate localities being given, having 
been treated apparently always as forms of II. Bihai and simplv all 
lumped together. 
Helieonias have always been favourite plants for cultivation here 
and used to form a very conspicuous feature of our Horticultural 
exhibitions, the most popular being the beautiful H. iUustns , Bull, 
(commonly known here as H. rubrostriata) and II. anreostriata The 
plants are readily propagated by breaking up the clump, and taking 
ott shoots in the same way as is done for bananas. Occasionally they 
produce ripe seed but that is not very common. They are cultivated 
as pot-plants, in good soil or in shady spots on lawns where they 
