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THE NATIVE BANANAS OF THE HAWAIIAN ISLANDS 



VAUGHAN MacCAUGHEY 

 College of Hawaii, Honolulu, Hawaii 



The banana occupied an important place in the dietary of the 

 ancient Hawaiian, as it did with all the Polynesian peoples. 

 The early European explorers all comment upon the numerous 

 groves and plantations of bananas in the vicinity of the native 

 settlements. The ease with which the plant was propagated, 

 the little culture it required," the profusion and perennial quality 

 of its* growth, and its abundance of nutritious and palatable food, 

 all combined to- give it high rank in the primitive Hawaiian 

 agriculture. 



With the decadence of the native population, and the introduc- 

 tion of large numbers of alien peoples with food-habits entirely 

 different from those of the Hawaiian, the native banana dimin- 

 ished in importance as a staple of diet. Foreign varieties were 

 introduced from time to time, and in a number of instances, 

 notably that of the Chinese banana, became more numerous, 

 both in cultivation and in the markets, than the original native 

 varieties. 



It is the purpose of the present paper to discuss somewhat in 

 detail the native varieties as distinguished from the now-pre- 

 ponderant alien bananas. Brief consideration may be given, at 

 the outset, to some of the more prominent of these introduced 

 kinds, in order to make clear the differences betw^een the two 

 groups. A person visiting the Hawaiian Islands today would find 

 the standard commercial variety to be the Chinese banana, Miisa 

 cavendishii. It w^as introduced from Tahiti about 1855, and 

 rapidly found favor in its new home. In the vicinity of Hono- 

 lulu, at various points on the island of Oahu, and to a lesser de- 

 gree on the other islands, are extensive plantations of this spe- 

 cies. The local consumption is large, and there is considerable 



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THE PLANT WORLD, VOL. 21, NO. 1 

 JANUARY, 1918 



