ttOUTCJS JA'WAICENlflfl 



The fruit of these two species may be regarded among the great.?..! blessing- I < towed 

 tipon the inhabitants of tliwdmniie. Three doz en plantains are ail i "icient rs 



serve one man for ;. week, in lien of other bread, an I will support hiai much Ik tt< r. 



The greet* leaves of both species are an excellent .'; : . le 1 for horses or cattle, as wsll 

 as the -stems ; and, as thei-r juice, is ;orut '. i restringent, preserve thea') from scowei-J 

 i 1 1 _r too much after grazing <mi sour or salt-marsh grass. 



The banana-fruit, ripe, has been noted for its efficacy in corrVJstin'g those I li 

 humours which generate, or accompauy, the fluxes to which Europeans arc often :ub- 

 ject on their first coming into the West (tidies. It is somewhat surprising that captai 

 of ships in this trade do not lay in a quantity of the roasted fruit of tnese tr< is, or 

 .plants, for their sea-store, especially-as it might be kepi for a long-time packed in 

 the dried leaves, atxl s owed in tight ca ks,and requires only a-fresh roasting, or heae- 

 'iin.r, when wanted for use. 't is a cheap, hearty, food, and won Id furnish the inilors 

 with a wholesome and agreeable change, after a tedious repetition of salt-meai i ' 

 not only keep them free from scorbutic foulnesses, but serve the purpose <) other 

 Vegetable aliment not so easily to be had at sea, and certainly much better for theai 

 than mouldy-biscuit, full of weevils an. 1 dirt. Long, p. 78:5. 



The juice which drops-from a bunch of bana'rias, hung up h, the shade, makes a very 

 <good vinegar. 



A great deal has been said and written lately as to the possibility of manufacturing 'a 

 >.good hemp from the fibres of the different plants bf this genus; and rewards of two 



-hundred pounds have been paid, under an order of the assembly, for the best specimens 



.produced of this hemp in each county of* Jamaica. This is, however, no newdisco- 

 very, for the Indians have been m the habit, since the first discovery of the New World, 



and no doubt long before, of making cloth from these fibres. The celebrated circum- 

 navigator, Dampier, notices the process, more than a century ago, as follows : " They 

 take the body of the tree, clear it of its outward bark and leaves, cuti't into four quarters, 

 which, put into the sun, the moisture exhales; they -then take hold of the threads at 



-the ends, and draw them out ; they are as big as brown thread : of this they make cloth 

 in Mindanao, called saggr,;, which is stubborn when new, "wears out soon, and when 

 wet it is slimy." The natives of the Phillipine islands give the*na'nie of abaca to thc^. 

 vegetable fibres of : a species of the plantain, of which they make their cordage; and of 

 which they have considerable manufactories. 



The following is an account of the means made use of for obtaining this hemp, as 

 laid before the committee of the house of assembly, by Dr Stewart West, who gained 

 the premium for the best specimen produced in the county of Surry : 



MANUFACTURE OF HEMP FROM THE PLANTAIN-TREE. 



" In order to fulfil the intentions of the honourable house of assembly, I proposed 

 to myself to fiudout the most simple and expeditious process possible for manufacftir- 



K. 2 ing 



