MUSA, in botany, so named in memo ry of Antonins Muss, the freedman of Au gustus, a genus of the Polygamia Monoe cia class and order. Natural order of Scitaminex. Musa, Jussieu. Essential character : calyx spathe partial, many flowered; corolla two-petalled ; one pe tal erect, five-toothed, the other nectari ferous, concave, shorter; stamens six; style one ; all the flowers hermaphro dites: male, hermaphrodite above ; five filaments perfect; germ inferior, abor tive : female hermaphrodite, one filament only perfect ; berry oblong, three-sided, inferior, many-seeded. There are three species, of which M. paradisiaca, plan tain tree, rises with a soft herbaceous stalk, fifteen or twenty feet in height : the lower part of the stalk is frequently as large as a man's thigh, diminishinggra dually to the top, where the leaves come out on every side, which are often more than six feet long, and two broad they are thin and tender, so that where they are exposed to the open air they are ge nerally torn by the wind : when the plant is grown to its full height, the spike of flowers will appear from the centre of the leaves, nearly four feet in length, nodding on one side ; the upper part of the spike is made up of male or barren flowers ; the fruit is about nine inches long, and more than an inch in diameter, a little incurved, having three angles; the skin is tough, within is a soft pulp, of a luscious sweet flavour ; the spikes Of fruit are often so large as to weigh up wards of forty pounds. It is a native of
the East Indies, and other parts of the Asiatic continent; it is generally culti vated between the tropics, and is univer sal in all the islands, that are inhabited, of the southern Pacific Ocean. M. sapien tum, banana tree, differs from the pre ceding in having its stalks marked with dark purple stripes and spots; the fruit is shorter and rounder, with a softer pulp of a more luscious taste; it has been no ted for its efficacy in correcting those sharp humours, which generate or accom pany the fluxes to which Europeans are frequently subject on their first coming into the West Indies. These two fruits are said to be among the greatest bles sings bestowed by Providence upon the inhabitants of hot climates; three dozen plantains are sufficient to serve one man for a week instead of bread, and will sup port him much better.