130 
often form magnificent dumps. They do not usually grow well if 
exposed to full sun. Like bananas they require a rich soil, and do not 
succeed in stiff clay or poor soil, becoming dwarfed and shabby looking. 
They seem to be remarkably free from pests of any kind, even that 
troublesome banana pest, the butterfly Erionota thmx, the caterpillars 
of which roll up and destroy the leaves of bananas and palms, does not 
attack them. 
The Asiatic Species. 
In the case of most of the Heliconias from the Polynesian 
and Malay region, the plants having been introduced as cultivated 
plants, few or no actual localities have been recorded so that at 
present, we are ignorant of their place of origin. Mr. Baker in a 
paper on these plants in the Annals of Botany states that he has seen 
specimens from various localities such as New Caledonia, Solomon 
islands, etc., but the unfortunate error which attributed all these dis- 
tinct species to cultivated forms of the Brazilian H. Bihai has 
prevented his localising or identifying the species he had at hand. 
The following is a list of what I presume to be Asiatic species but 
they can only be properly worked up and systematised in Europe 
where there are localised specimens, original drawings, and the litera- 
ture of the species in different museums. 
Asiatic Species. 
Heliconia indica , Lam. Loc. 
uncertain 
H. buccinata, Roxb. ... 
Amboina 
Ileliconiopsis Amboinensis, Miq. 
H. austro-cahdonica , Vieill.... 
New Caledonia 
H. aureo- striata. Bull. 
uncertain 
H. illustris. Bull. 
uncertain 
H. rubro- striata, Hort. 
H. triumphans , Lind. 
Sumatra 
H. spectabilis , Lind. 
South Seas 
H. Micholitzii, Ridl. 
New Ireland 
H. viridis , Nicholson 
Polynesia 
Possibly also II. striata, Veitch. 
H. BUCCINATA, Roxb. is described as an immense 
beautiful bush 
leaves 2 to 4 feet long and one foot broad, petiole 3 to 6 feet long, 
inflorescence compound of 6 to 10 branches with 6 to 10 smooth 
bracts, flowers pale, yellow, Amboina. 
This plant was cultivated in the Calcutta Gardens in 1798, 
and is identified by Roxburgh with a plant described and figured 
by Rumph Herb. Amboin V. 141, t. 62 fig. 2, under the name 
of Folium buccinatum asperum. Rumph describes three species in 
Amboina under the names of latifolimn or rubnmi , album and asperum 
he gives as an Amboinese name Rind. Ruin and Riin ; latifolium being 
Rind Mera ; album Rind Puteh ; and asperum , Rind Laki. Of the red 
one he says the leaves and leafstalks become red when grown in the 
