496 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



the deep maroon of tlie lower faces of its leaves with the green 

 and silvery stripes of their upper sides ; the delicate pink-flowered 

 Oxalis, and the dainty " sensitive plant," whose modest shrinking 

 from the slightest touch has been uncharitably attributed to a 

 bad conscience, both by the botanist who named it Mimosa pudica 

 and by the darky boys who call it " shame." Emerging at last 

 into the full blaze of the tropic sun, which seems all the more 

 garish by contrast, we cross the open for a time and soon begin 

 the ascent, by a slight bridle path, of one of the steep hills that 

 inclose the valley. Slowly but surely the horse creeps upward, 

 now stopping with all four feet together to poise for a leap over a 

 gully, then pressing on over a track that nothing else but a 

 mountain goat could climb, close past and under trees that almost 

 brush one from the saddle. At length we come out upon open 

 ground near the summit, to be a hundredfold repaid by one of 

 the fairest sights the fancy can paint. At our feet lies the sea 

 of bananas ; beyond and on either side stretches the amphitheater 

 of hills, plumed with cocoanut palms and fringed with feathery 

 bamboos, and covered with verdure. Back to the house by a good 

 path, we taste true Jamaican hospitality in a cup of tea and that 

 most melting and luscious of Jamaica's fruits, a Ripley pine no 

 one says pineapple here. 



After cutting, it is important to ship the bananas as promptly 

 as possible and to handle them carefully, for the less they have 

 ripened or been bruised before reaching their market the better 

 prices they bring. So each bunch is carefully wrapped with 

 " trash " dried banana leaves and taken at once to the nearest 

 shipping port. From the great properties like Golden Vale they 

 are transported in two- wheeled or four-wheeled mule carts, the 

 former drawn by two mules, the latter by three abreast, carrying, 

 respectively, about twenty and forty bunches. These carts are 

 lined with trash to prevent bruising. The mule team consists of 

 a large mule in the shafts and a small one harnessed to an outrig- 

 ger on one side or on each side, as the case may be. From the 

 smaller clearings and dooryard patches of the peasants come sin- 

 gle bunches on the heads of their owners, or lots of two or four 

 bunches packed in trash and slung pannier-fashion across the 

 backs of donkeys. 



As the bunches are received at the wharf they are unpacked, 

 inspected, and checked off by a tallyman, and placed in trash-lined 

 bins according to their size and quality. A glance shows an ex- 

 perienced eye how many groups or "hands" of bananas a bunch 

 contains. A bunch of nine or more hands is a whole bunch, and 

 brings the full-bunch price either at the port of shipment or in 

 the Northern market. I am told that bunches of sixteen hands 

 are occasionally met with, but have never seen one of more than 



