2 
THE FLORIST AND POMOLOGIST. 
[ January, 
cinnabar red colour, one being female and rather smaller than the male. 
B. rosaflora has also thick concave leaves ; but they are of a more rounded 
outline, with much deeper basal lobes, and the veins are so deeply im¬ 
pressed as to render the surface bullate; while the scapes, which are red, 
like the petioles, are three-flowered; and the large flowers are of a clear rose 
colour, one of the three being female. They are thus abundantly distinct as 
decorative plants, and out of bloom have more the aspect of some broad¬ 
leaved Saxifrage, such as 8. ciliata, than that with which we have hitherto 
been familiar amongst Begonias. There are other technical differences, such 
as the form of the bracts, which are oblong in B. VcitcJiii, and broader and 
shorter in B. rosa flora; while in the first the wing of the ovary is blunt- 
pointed, the ovary being smooth, and in the latter it is acutely pointed, the 
ovary being hairy. 
No doubt these very showy novelties will open out a new field, of which 
the hybridiser will not be slow to avail himself. T. M. 
NOTES ON FINE-FOLIAGED SUB-TROPICAL PLANTS.—I. 
THE OBDER MUSACEiE. 
''HE small group of Musads, containing only four genera, Heliconia 
Musa, Strelitzia, and Bavenala, does not, on a cursory view, appear to 
contain many plants possessing superlative or even ordinary merit, 
as decorative objects, for the open air in this country; but yet on 
examination we find that it contains a few gems of the first water 
for that purpose, and also as regards their utility to mankind. 
The order comprises some of the most valuable plants, both for the abundance of nutritive 
food afforded by their fruit, called in the tropics Plantains and Bananas, and for the many 
domestic purposes to which their gigantic leaves are applied; the Banana being used for 
thatching Indian cottages, for a natural cloth from which the traveller may eat his food, 
and as a material for basket-making. Finally, one species (Musa textilis ), yields a most 
valuable flax, from which some of the finest muslins are prepared. 
Voight, in his Hortus Suburbanus Calcuttensis, published in 1845, says 
of the Musa paradisaica, that it “ fruits throughout the year.” The fruit 
of the Banana affords a luxury that is familiar to the traveller in every 
quarter where it ripens its fruit, against which, however, he has at first a 
certain degree of prejudice, whether as a dessert or cooked article ; blit 
this prejudice is soon overcome, and the Banana is thereafter regarded as 
an indispensable article at his table. As in many other cases, Bananas 
are the most delicious when the ripe fruits are gathered fresh from the 
plants ; these have a totally different flavour from the exported fruits, 
which are cut green, and have to ripen on the passage. The varieties differ 
also both in size, appearance, and quality, and the flavour differs accord¬ 
ing to the season at which they ripen. They may be designated, if grown 
under favourable circumstances, as plants of continuous or perpetual 
