The unripe fruits contain a large percentage of starch and the pulp, when dried and reduced to a powder, makes an excellent and nutritious flour or meal. The ripe fruit contains about twenty per cent of starch, the remainder having been changed into sugar during the process of ripening. Even intoxicating drinks are made by the Africans from the juice, known as "banana beer" and "banana wine." It is not the fruit alone that is used as food, as also the pith, the top of the flower cluster and the young and tender shoots delight the taste and nourish the body. The economic value of the fibers of some of the species was known to the Chinese and Japanese from remote times. The fiber obtained from the leaves of both the banana and the plantain are valuable in the manufacture of paper and fabrics of various kinds. One of the most interesting and valuable of the species of Musa is the Wild Plantain (Musa textilis) of the Philippine Islands. The fiber obtained from this plant is the Manila or Cebu hemp of commerce, which is used, in this country, mainly for the manufacture of binding twines, cordage and mats. In France the finer fibers are quite extensively used for the manufacture of fine veils, crapes, hats, delicate underclothing and many other articles of apparel. The natives of the Philippines call this fiber Abaca. It is called Manila because most of the fiber is exported from the seaport of that name. We are told that "Manila hemp began to be used extensively in this country, in Salem and Boston, in 1824 to 1827." Probably the most peculiar of all the species is the Chinese banana (Musa Cavendishii), which is extensively cultivated in China and throughout the South Sea Islands. It is a dwarf, the plant seldom attaining a height of more than six feet. It is robust and yields a great harvest of fruit, a single bunch bearing from two hundred to three hundred bananas, the flavor of which is excellent. 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.