MUSA. 
of the ripe fruit fermented. A marmalade is likewife 
made of it, efteemed an excellent peftoral, cooling and 
1‘efreftiihg. The banana-fruit has been noted for its effi¬ 
cacy in correcting thofe ffiarp humours which generate 
or accompany the fluxes to which Europeans are often 
fubjedt'on their ill'll coming into the Well Indies. The 
roalled fruit would be an ufeful fea-ftore 5 would keep a 
long time, packed in dry leaves, and flowed in tight calks ; 
and would require only a freffi roafting or heating, v'hen 
wanted for ufe. It W'as cultivated in 1731, by Mr. Miller, 
who lays, “ Thefe two fruits are among the greatelt blef- 
flngs bellowed by Providence upon the inhabitants of hot 
climates. Three dozen plantains are fufficient to ferve 
one man for a week inftead of bread, and will fupport 
him much better.” Though the plantain and banana 
are generally coniidered as different, yet Loureiro, For- 
fter, and Gaertner, cannot find any Certain fpecific dillinc- 
tion, and agree that Linnaeus’s is infufficient. Gaertner 
unites them under the character of a one-celled berried 
fruit, which feparates them from Mufa troglodytarum, 
that having a three-celled bellied fruit. 
There are many varieties of plantain and banana, as 
might be expeCted in plants fo extenlively cultivated. 
Rumphius has let down fixteen, which he obferved in 
the Molucca-ifiands. One of thefe is reprefented at 
%• 2 - 
3. Mufa troglodytarum, the wild plantain : flower-ftalk 
ereCt; male flowers deciduous. The Item of this is only 
four feet high, and about an inch in thicknefs. Leaves 
linear, three feet long, and five inches wide. Spathes 
lineal', alternate, fcarlet, many ; berry fcarlet, ovate, com- 
preffed, two inches long, not eatable. Seeds numerous, 
in a double row in each cell, fixed to the axis of the fruit, 
varioufly angular, jointed into one another as it were 
like the Hones of a pavement, without any pulp between 
them, acuminate towards the umbilicus, very fmooth, 
ferruginous or blackilh. Thunberg fays, that they are 
almolt as large as linleed, or the feed of flax. Gaertner 
afferts, that this is a genuine ipecies of Heliconia ; but 
this muft be a miftake. Native of the Molucca-iflands. 
4.. Mufa coccinea, the fcarlet plantain-tree : flow’ers 
capitate, ereCt; Iheaths ovate, permanent; Itamens five. 
Native of China; and is faid to have been firlt introduced 
into the Britilh lloves by T. Evans, efq. of Stepney, about 
the year 1792. This is of much more humble growth 
than any of the foregoing, and remarkable for the rich 
fcarlet colour of its iheaths, which are imbricated and 
permanent, forming a cone-like head. The lowermoft of 
them often ends in a leaf. Redoute very juftly obferves, 
that thefe fcales ought to be called braftes, and not to be 
coniidered as a calyx. This author, as well as Mr. An¬ 
drews, deicribes five Itamens only in each flower, all alike 
perfect in fome, abortive in others. 
5. Mufa bihai (of Linnaeus). See Heliconia, vol. ix. 
p.322. 
Propagation and Culture. In Europe, fome of thefe 
plants are preferved in the gardens of curious perfons, 
who liaye hot-houfes capacious enough for their recep¬ 
tion ; but, as they grow very tall, and their leaves are 
large, they require more room in the ftove than moll 
people care to allow them. They are propagated by 
fuckers, which come from the roots of thofe plants which 
have fruited ; and many times the younger plants, when 
they are Hinted in growth, will put out fuckers; thefe 
jliould be carefully taken oft', preferving fome fibres to 
their roots, and planted in pots filled with light rich 
earth, and plunged into the tan-bed in the Hove: thefe 
may be taken off any time in fummer; and it is bell to 
take them oft' when young, becaufe, if their roots are 
grown large, they do not put out new fibres fo foon; and, 
when the thick part of the root is cut in taking oft’, the 
plants often rot. During the fummer feafon thefe plants 
muft be plentifully watered ; for, the furface of their 
leaves being large, there is a great confumption of moifi- 
tiire by ) irfpiration in hot weather; but in the winter 
Vol. XVI. No. 110$. 
249 
they muff: be watered more fparingly. The pots in which, 
thefe plants are placed fhould be large in proportion to 
the fize of the plants, for their roots generally extend 
pretty far, and the earth fliould be rich and light. The 
degree of heat with which thele plants thrive bell, is 
much the lame with the anana, or pine-apple; in which 
(fays Mr. Miller) I have had many of thefe plants pro¬ 
duce their fruit in perfection, and they w'ere near twenty- 
feet high. 
The moll fure method to have thefe plants fruit in 
England is, after they have grown for fome time in pots, 
fo as to have made good roots, to (hake them out of the 
pots with the ball of earth to their roots, and plant 
them into the tan-bed in the Hove, oblerving to lay a 
little old tan near their roots for their fibres to (trike 
into; and in a few months the roots of thefe plants will 
extend themfelves many feet each way in the bark; and 
thefe plants will thrive a great deal falter than thole 
which are confined in pots or tubs. When the bark-bed 
wants to be renewed with frelh tan, there fliould be great 
care taken of the roots of thefe plants, not to cut or break 
them, as all'o to leave a large quantity of the old tan 
about them, becaufe, if the new tan is laid too near them, 
it will Icorch their roots, and injure them. Thele plants 
muft be plentifully fupplied with water, otherwife they 
will not thrive; in winter they fliould be watered twice 
a-week, giving at lead two quarts to each plant, but in 
fummer they mull be watered every other day, and double 
the quantity given to them each time. If the plants puih 
out their flower-items in the fpring, there will be hopes 
of their perfecting their fruit; but, when they come out 
late in the year, the plants will fometimes decay before 
the fruit is ripe. The lloves in which thefe plants are 
placed fliould be at lead twenty feet in height, otherwife 
there will not be room for them to expand; for, when 
the plants are in vigour, the leaves are often eight feet 
in length, and two feet broad ; lb that, if the Hems grow 
to be fourteen feet to the diviiion of the leaves, and the 
lioufe is not twenty feet high, the leaves will be cramped, 
which will retard the growth of the plants ; befides, when 
the leaves are bent againll the glafs, there will be danger 
of their breaking it, when they are growing vigorously; 
“for I have had in one night the llems of fuch bent leaves 
force through the glafs, and by the next morning ad¬ 
vanced two or three inches above the glafs.” 
“ I have feen fome b.unches of the fruit of the firftfort, 
which were upwards of forty pounds weight, and per¬ 
fectly ripe in England; but this is not fo good a fruit as 
to tempt any perfon to be at the expenfe of railing it 
in England. The fecond Sort is preferred to the Aril, for 
the flavour of its fruit, in all thofe hot countries where 
thefe plants abound : the bunches of thefe are not near 
fo large as thole of the firft l’ort, nor is the Angle fruit 
near lb long; thefe change to a deeper yellow colour as 
they ripen, but their tafte is fomewhat like that of mealy 
figs. Some perfons who have reiided in the Well Indies, 
having eaten fome of the fruit which were produced in 
England, thought them little inferior to thofe which 1 
grew in America.” 
The plantain-tree is cultivated with great care in all 
our lugar-colonies. It thrives bell in a cool, rich, moift, 
foil; and is commonly planted in regular walks or fields : 
it is propagated by the (hoots, and planted at convenient 
dillances; but, as the root throws up a number of fmall 
(hoots every year, the fpaces between the firft plants are 
left pretty considerable. When the fruit is ripe, the Item 
decays gradually, and the root begins to throw up younp- 
ftxoots. The item is then ufually cut down near^he 
root, to give a llronger and quicker growth to the new 
plants. In the South-Sea. illafids, they put fome wood- 
allies and burnt plants with a little (hell-lime into the 
hole, when they plant the Mufa, by which they fo accele¬ 
rate the growth, as to have fruit in fix and even four 
months; whereas in the common courfe it is eighteen 
months before fruit is expe&ed, MarUjns Miller. 
3 S ' MU'SA 
