34' HO JIT US JAItfAICiENSIS; pfcANTSHB 



nearly ripe, from lb c same stem, and closely joining the other, which' was shooting; 

 out. He mentions haying been forty-seven years in Jamaica, and never saw the like. 

 There is a variety known by the name of maiden plantain; the common kind being- 

 palled /torse plantain, which differs from it in being of a smaller and more delicate 

 growth, and having red streaks on the stem ; as also in smaller but much more clus- 

 tered and numerous fruit ; the maiden plantain bunch growing more like that of the* 

 banana, containing often from eighty to an hundred plantains, and weighing often - 

 < ightj pounds, whereas the. bunch of the common plantain seldom contains more than 

 twenty. These t/ecs bear fruit fit for use in from nine to twelve months after the 

 suckers are planted, according to soil and seasons : the hor^e plantain takes three 

 months to fill from tlie time it first shoots, and the maiden plantain four; the latter is . 

 'he most delicate fud. 



2. SAPIENTUM. WISE. 



Iilitsa, caitdice macuJaij, 'fructu, recta, rohindo, hrcx-'cre, odorafo... 

 Sloane, v. 2, p. 147. Spadice nutanti, fructu breiiore oblongo. 

 Browne, p. 363. 



Spadix nodding ; male flowers deciduous. 



The bana.na-tr.ee so much resembles the plantain, as bar iiy to be distinguished at 

 first sight, but has its stem irregularly marked with black cr dark purple spots, which 

 the other has not. The bunches of fruit are more compact, and the fruit more numer- 

 ous, shorter, and. rounder; than that of the plantain. The-fruit has also a thinner 

 skin,. and the pulp is sober, and of a more luscious agreeable taste when ripe, which 

 may be eaten either raw, fried, or boile.i, and makes excellent fritters. It is a delicate 

 food vlicf ripe, and roasted with the skin on. A banana or plantain drink is made by 

 mixing either of them, when ripe, with water, untij it is pretty well mixed with the 

 fruit; then let i- stand twelve hours and :' rain.- The plants of tins genus, now so 

 generally cultivated iri tbe.West Indies rcre, it is thought, originally brought frcrflV 

 Guitiea, and. imported -into these-islan a he Oanaries. 



When the natives of the West Indit (saj ' bat] undertake a voyage, they make 4 

 provision of a paste of banana ; which, in cast of need, serves them for nourishment 

 and drink: for this purpose they take ripe bananas-; and, having squeezed them 

 through a hue sieve, from the solid fruit into si) all leases,, which are dried in the sun 

 or in hot ashes, after being previou \ wrapped up-in the leaves of Indian flowering 

 reed. When they would make use of this-] iste they dissolve it in- water, which is very 

 easilvdone; and t lie liquor, thereby rendered thick', has an agreeable acid taste im- . 

 parted to it, which makes it both refreshing and nourishing. 



This is very common, and its frtrit so well known as to need no description. The - 

 Spaniards have a conceit, thaVif you cut tins or the plantain-thwart-er crossways, there 

 appears a cross in the middle of the fruit, and therefore they will not cnt any, hut 

 break them. The Franciscans dedicate litis fruit to the i uses, and therefore call it 

 r >,;. The Portuguese call them ficm derta, others /V,/- martabana; in Guinea 

 bananas Lodovicys llornanus, and.Brocard,.who wuote a description of the ; J .oly 

 I.and, called, them; Adum^^s apples, suppi '.. "' lo be/the fruit that-Eve,took and wave 

 1s Adam, which is err meous ; hut it -.> very probable, that their leaves might be- the 

 fur-leaves they sewed together, to lude ttheir nakedness ; nay, one leaf alone was or is- 

 iUtluicjit to uo that, being' very. brpacl a;. i Jong; 1 knpw bouc like it. Theyare a- 



svhoiesonic 



