MUSA, a genus of the Musacea, the banana or plantain tribe of plants. Natives of South America, China, Madagascar, Mauritius, and the East Indies, about 20 species.
a. Hcliconiew, 4. Rich. Heliconia buccinata, Roxb., Moluccas.
b. Itavenalew.
Musa paradisiaca, L., all the tropics.
M. rotacea, Jacq., Chittagong, Mauritius.
M. superba, Roxb., Dindigul.
Nepalensis, Wall., Nepal. M. glauca, Roxb., Pegu.
M. textilis, Nees, Philippines. M. cavendishii, Lamb, China. M. coccinea, Andr., China.
corniculata, Bumph., Archipelago.
ensete, Cmelin, Abyssinia.
simiarum, Bumph., Malacca. M. rubra, Wall., Irawacli.
Chinensis, Std., China.
maculata, Jacq., Mauritius. M. balbisiana, Cuile, Amboyna.
acuminate, Culla, Amboyna. M. verteroniana, Culla, Moluccas.
textilis, Nees, Manilla. M. ornata, Roxb., Chittagong.
The fruits of several species of musa, the plan tain or banana, are used as food and for dessert, but the most esteemed is M. paradisiaca, L. The plantain is the muz or mans of the Arabian writers, whence the Latin term musa. The plantain was known by description both to the Greeks and Romans. Theophrastus, among the plants of India, describes one as having fruit which serves as food for the wise men, and which was remarkable both for its sweetness and for its size, as one would suffice for four men,refer ring most probably to a bunch of plantains. Pliny, evidently desciThing - the same plant, informs us that its name was Pala, and in Male alam it is Vella, and in Tamil Valle. In the Indian Archipelago, the edible species extend northwards as far as Japan ; in China are found M. coceinea and M. Cavendishii ; also along the Malayan Peninsula to Chittagong,M. glauca being indigenous in the former, and M. ornata in the latter locality. In the valleys of the south of the Peninsula of India and of the Dindigul mountains, M. superba is found.
No Burma or Karen house is to be found without a plantation of plantains. As the Karen leave their abodes, at least every three years, in order to migrate to fresh localities, they leave their plantain gardens behind them, and these may be found growing luxuriantly iu many uninhabited places, until they become choked up by the growth of the more vigorous jungle. Natives
of Bengal generally prefer the large and coarse fruited kinds, while the smaller and more deli cately-tasted fruit is alone esteemed by Europeans. All of that growing in Nepal has been called M. Nepalensis, and a similar wild species may be seen growing below the Mussoori range, as well as near Nabu. The fruit, however, in all these situations consists of little else than the hard, dry seeds ; a variety having seeds surrounded with a gummy substance, instead of fruit-like pulp, was found by Dr. Finlayson, on Pulo Ubi, near the southern extremity of Cambodia. In Batavia, also, there is stated to be a variety full of seeds, which is called Pisang batu, or Pisang bidju, that is, seed plantain. In Kamaou and Garhwal the plantain is cultivated at an elevation of 4000 and 5000 feet above the sea, and has been seen as far north as the Chamba range at an equal elevation. Major Munro has seen a wild plan tain at 7000 feet above the sea, in the Konda slopes of the Neilgherries.
Mr. R. Brown thinks that nothing has been advanced to prevent all the cultivated varieties being derived from one species. Plantains and bananas are extensively cultivated in various parts of S. America, and at an elevation of 3000 feet in the Caraccas, and they are abundant in the W. India Islands, as well as at considerable elevations in Mexico. To the Negroes in the West Indies the plantain is invaluable ; and in Guiana, Demerara, Jamaica, Trinidad, and other principal colonies, many thousand acres are planted with the plantain.
Dr. Roxburgh described the small-sized M. ornata, the On-ang-ebok-chee of the Chinese, and Ramanigi-kula of Bengal. It resembles the banana and plantain in habit and in its perennial root. It was introduced into India. His description of the M. glauca, Roxb., is that it is a very stately, elegant, perfectly-distinct, strongly-marked a native of Pegu, and from thence introduced by the discoverer, Mr. F. Carey, into the Botanic Garden at Calcutta. Boyle, hot. and Fib. Plants ; Roxb.; Helfer ; Mason ; Voigt ; Hogg; Drury.