21 I 
Genera and Species of Museae. 
in the Temperate House at Kew in 1891. It is as hardy as 
M. Ensete , and is grown in Southern Japan for its fibre. 
M. Martini , Rev. Hort. Belg. 1892, 109, fig. 12, has the habit 
of M. sapientum , and is said to be more hardy than M. Ensete , 
with bright rose-red flowers. The leaves are oblong, long- 
petioled, firm in texture, bright green above, glaucous beneath, 
with reddish veins. It was brought from the Canary Islands. 
14. M. textilis, Nee. Ann. Cienc. IV, 123 ; M. mindanensis (Rumph. 
Amboin. V, 139) ; Miquel, FI. Ned. Bat. Ill, 588 ; M. sylvestris , 
Colla, Monogr. Musa, 58 ; M. Troglodytarum textoria , Blanco, 
FI. Filip. 247, ed. II, 173. Stem cylindrical, green, 20 ft. or 
more long, stoloniferous from the base. Leaves oblong, deltoid 
at the base, bright green above, rather glaucous beneath, 
smaller and firmer in texture than those of M. sapientum ; petiole 
a foot long. Panicle drooping, shorter than the leaves ; male 
flowers deciduous; bracts firmer in texture than those of 
M \ sapientum , naked and polished outside, not at all pruinose, 
brown. Female flowers in several laxly-disposed clusters. 
Fruit green, oblong-trigonous, curved, 2-3 in. long, 1 in. diam., 
not narrowed to the apex, but narrowed to the short stout 
pedicel, not edible, but filled with seed. Seeds black, tur- 
binate, J in. diam., angled by pressure. 
Var. M. amlboinensis (Rumph. Amboin. V, 139); Miquel, 
loc. cit. Stem not so tall. Panicle not so drooping. Fruit as 
long as a man’s finger, black at maturity. The type ( Vidal , 
3943 •) plentiful in the Philippine Islands, where it is called 
Abaca, and ascends the mountains to the lower limit of Pinus 
insularis , and is largely used in the manufacture of Manilla 
hemp, for information about which reference may be made to 
the Kew Bulletin for April, 1887. It is the most important of 
all cordage fibres, and the annual export from the Philippines 
to Britain is 170,000 bales, and to the United States 160,000 
bales, equal to about 50,000 tons per annum. It was intro- 
duced into cultivation in India in 18 n by Dr. Fleming. As 
cultivated in the Peradeniya Botanic Garden it has thinner leaves 
more rounded at the base than the wild plant. Var. amboine?isis 
in Amboyna. 
15. M. sapientum, Linn. Sp, Plant. 1477; Trew, Ehret. t. 21-23; 
Rheede, Hort. Malabar. I, 17, t. 12-14; M. sativa seu domes- 
