of fine fruit, and is
cultivated to some extent in Florida, where it endures more cold
than the West India species and fruits more abundantly.

296. MUSA ENSETE.--This Abyssinian species forms large foliage of
striking beauty. The food is dry and uneatable; but the base of
the flower stalk is eaten by the natives.

297. MUSA SAPIENTUM.--The banana plant. This has been cultivated and
used as food in tropical countries from very remote times, and
furnishes enormous quantities of nutritious food, and serves as a
staple support to a large number of the human race. The expressed
juice is in some countries made into a fermented liquor and the
young shoots eaten as a vegetable.

298. MUSA TEXTILIS.--This furnishes the fiber known as manilla hemp,
and is cultivated in the Philippine Islands for this product. The
finer kinds of the fiber are woven into beautiful shawls and the
coarser manufactured into cordage for ships. The fiber is obtained
from the leaf-stalks.

299. MUSSAENDA FRONDOSA.--This cinchonaceous plant is a native of
Ceylon. The bark and leaves are esteemed as tonic and febrifuges
in the Mauritius, where they are known as wild cinchona. The
leaves and flowers are also used as expectorants, and the juice of
the fruit and leaves is used as an eyewash.

300. MYRISTICA MOSCHATA.--The nutmeg tree. The seed of this plant is
the nutmeg of commerce, and mace is the seed cover of the same.
When the nuts are gathered they are dried and the outer shell of
the seed removed. The mace is also dried in the sun and assumes a
golden yellow color. The most esteemed nutmegs come from Penang.
At one time the nutmeg culture was monopolized by the Dutch, who
were in the habit of burning them when the crop was too abundant,
in order to keep up high prices.

301. MYROSPERMUM PERUIFERUM.--This plant yields the drug known as
balsam of Peru, which is procured by making incisions in the bark,
into which cotton rags are thrust; a fire is then made round the
tree to liquefy the balsam. The balsam is collected by boiling the
saturated rags in water. It is a thick, treacly looking liquid,
with fragrant aromatic smell and taste, and is not used so much in
medicine as it formerly was.

302. MYROSPERMUM TOLUIFERUM.--A South American tree, also called
M