The opposite of the Chinese form is the Abyssinian (Musa ensete), which may be called the giant plantain. It attains a height of thirty or more feet and the leaves are sometimes twenty feet long by three feet wide. The fruit is pulpless and dry, but the inner part of the stalk and the young stalks are boiled and used for food. It is without doubt the most handsome species of this wonderfully useful and beautiful group of plants.
William Kerr Higley.
Transcriber's Note:
- Minor typographical errors have been corrected without note.
- Punctuation and spelling were made consistent when a predominant form was found in this book; otherwise they were not changed.
- Ambiguous hyphens at the ends of lines were retained.
- The Contents table was added by the transcriber.