8 VAUGHAN MacCAUGHEY 



very steep protected leeward slopes, in pockets or in the little 

 hanging valleys that are so characteristic of the older summits. 

 The summit regions of Wai-ale-ale, Ka-ala, Jona-hua-nui, East 

 Molokai, West Maui, and Kohala, all possess these high-alti- 

 tude banana clumps. The plants are usually somewhat dwarfed 

 in stature, and produce either no fruit whatever, or very small 

 bunches bearing only a few fruits. These scanty fruits are gen- 

 erally eaten by the wild rats as rapidly as they begin to ripen. 

 It is a very rare experience to find ripe bananas in any of the 

 wild groves. In these cold, excessively humid regions the fruits 

 mature very slowly. The bunches are small; often there are 

 not a dozen full sized bananas on the bunch. The plants give 

 every evidence of being in a region too cold and windy for their 

 normal development. 



It is difficult to explain the presence of these plants at such 

 elevations, for they are far above the level of the groves tended 

 by the ancient Hawaiians. Yet there is no conceivable agency, 

 save man, that could have originally started these groves at 

 such altitudes. A banana clump can readily propagate itself 

 down hill, for the suckers that are broken off or uprooted by 

 storms, fall to lower levels, retain their vitality for a long time, 

 and readily sprout when they lodge in some favorable crevice. 

 This, however, will in no way account for the presence of these 

 isolated clumps near the extreme summits. These regions surely 

 would not have been selected by the primitive Hawaiians as 

 sites for banana groves, for the conditions, as has already been 

 intimated, are highly unfavorable for fruit production. 



The banana plant is a gigantic herbaceous perennial, and the 

 green ''trunks" or false stems arise from a massive 'starchy basal 

 corm. In old clumps this basal mass may be 3 or 4 feet in 

 diameter, and several feet thick. It emits great numbers of 

 white, cord-like roots from the sides and lower surfaces. The 

 new shoot-buds originate on the upper surface, at the bases of 

 the older stems or trunks. The life of the basal corm is indefi- 

 nite; other conditions remaining the same, there seems to be no 

 reason why it could not go on producing new shoots without 

 cessation. In the lowlands and valley floors the corm is hidden 



