September r, 1882.] THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST. 



i«5 



" TRAVELS OF PLANTS " : THE COCONUT, 

 COFFEE, AND PLANTALNS VS. 

 BANANAS. 

 We flo not know what position ill the botanical 

 world is occupied by " H. E.," who WTote the article 

 on the migi'ation of plants, which will be found on 

 page 82 (Vol. II. ), but, amidst much that is exceedingly 

 interesting, he tells us some things which have sur- 

 prized us. For instance, taking the leadmg botanists 

 of tlie world as our authorities, we Iiave hitherto 

 pinned our faith to the belief that the coconut palm 

 was a native of South America, whence the nuts 

 floated to the East Indies, including Ceylon ; the isles 

 of the Pacific, &c. But we are now astonished at 

 being told that, while tlic Eastern hemisphere is In- 

 debted to the Western world for such products as 

 the potato, the cinchonas, toliacco, wheat and maize 

 (chillies and a good many other plants might be added 

 to tlie list), it was the Eastern world which, with 

 sugar and coffee, gave to the Western the boon of 

 the coconut paUn ! We thought, too, it liad been 

 finally settled as an article of botanical belief, that 

 coffee is indigenous to Africa, and that what is called 

 Coffea arabica reached Arabia Felix from its home 

 in Abyssinia, at a period not veiy far back in his- 

 tory. Travellers in Abyssinia and in Africa generally, 

 especially western and central Africa, have found 

 varieties of the coflfee plant growing abundantly in 

 the primitive forests, while we are unaware of any 

 evidence that coffee has ever been seen in any part 

 of Arabia, except as a cultivated plant, — generally 

 requiring and obtaining ii-rigation. Are we now to 

 believe, on the authority of this writer in the Gardeners' 

 Chronicle, that " Cojf'ea arabica" is not a misnomer 

 but a correct indication of origin ? Is it true also 

 that forced growth, the result of excess of sun, 

 accounts for rust in wheat ? We are inclined still to 

 believe that wheat rust, like the allied fungus of the 

 coffee leaf, flourishes cliiefly where there is excess of 

 moisture. The fact that innumerable seedlmgs of 

 a.spen sprung up around Moscow after the couflagi-a- 

 tion which checkmated the Corsican invader is of 

 gi-eat interest, but it is not singular. In Australia, 

 myriads of seeds of eucali/itfi. and acacias which have 

 lain in the soil inert, perh.ips for generations, vivify and 

 spring up on tracts which have been swept by de- 

 solating bush fires, and many seeds refuse to germinate 

 until heated by fire or steeped in hot-water : the seeds 

 of the Australian acacias (wattles), for instance, should 

 always receive a steeping in hot-water before being 

 sown. " H. E." HTites as if there were a real dis- 

 tinction between plantains and bananas. We are not 

 aware of any, although we have occasionally heard 

 very large sized plantains g^■o^^^l in Ceylon called 

 bananas. Here we speak of plantains : in America, 

 and we believe in the West Lidies, in Australia and 

 most other parts of the world, " banana " is the tenn 

 for the nutritious starchy and saccharme fruit, so 

 valuable as an article of food to the inhabitants of 

 the tropics. 



Since -BTitrng the foregoing, we have refeiTed to 

 the " Treasury of Botany," from which we learn 

 that Ijotaui.sts observe a slight distmction between the 

 plantain and banana. Tlie following contribution by 

 Dr. Masters (" M. T. M.") is of gener.il interest, apart 

 from the question under notice : — 



JI. paradiiiacu and J/, aajucntuiit are the botanical names 

 liy wliicli the plantain and banana arc respectively known. 

 The latter has its stems marked with purple spots, and its 

 fruits are shorter and rounder than those of tlie plantain, 

 but otlierwise the two plants arc little cUtferent one from the 

 other. They have been cultivated from the most remote 

 24 



times in tropical climates, in subtropical Asia, America, 

 Africa, and the islands of the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans, 

 for the sake of their fruits, which they produce in enormous 

 quantities with very little attention. There are several 

 varieties, the fruits of which .liliVr in flavour, but aU are 

 more or less mawkish and viscid, at least in the ripe state, 

 for the starch that abounds in the unripe fruit becomes 

 converted, as it ripens, into mucilage and sugar. They are 

 highly nutritious, and serve as the staple food of a large 

 number of the human race. Though less nutritious than 

 wheat or potatoes, yet the space occupied by their culture, 

 and the care requu-ed, are so very much less, that Humboldt 

 has calculated the produce of bananas compared to that of 

 wheat as 133 to 1, and ta that of potatoes as 44 to 1. 



Plant.ain meal is obtained by powdering the dried fruit ; it 

 is very nutritious, as it contains not only starch, but protein 

 or aesh-forming material. The fruits of the plantain are 

 stated by chemists to be most nearly allied in composition and 

 nutritive value to the potato, and the plantain meal to rice. 

 The natives of many parts of India live almost entirely on 

 plantains, and the stems, laden with fruit, are made use of at 

 wedding festirities, in token of plenty. Plantations of bananas 

 or plantains are made by settlers to support their famili.-s, 

 and the fruits are eaten raw, or cooked in various ways. The' 

 expressed juice is in some countries made into a fermented 

 liquor, and the young shoots eaten as a vegetable. 



The specific name, paradisiaca, was given under the sup- 

 position that the fruits of the plantain were the Forbidden 

 Fruit of the Scriptiue, or the fruits called grapes that the 

 spies brought to Moses from the promised land as evidence 

 of its fertility ; but it is hardly necessary to say that there 

 is no foundation for such opinions. 



When the stems jire cut down, or decay after the form- 

 ation of the fruit, new suckers are sent up fi-om below, and 

 these in the course of a few months produce fruit in their 

 turn. Each bunch of fruit weighs from sbcty to eighty 

 pounds and upwards, even when ripened in hothouses in this 

 country. The abundance and nutritive properties of the 

 fruit are not the only qualities which give these plants their 

 value. Their leaves serve as thatch for houses, and for 

 other domestic purposes; and some parts are used me- 

 dicinally in cases of dropsy, and as an external applic- 

 ation to burus and idcers. 



The JIusas are likewise remarkable for the quantity of 

 fibrous tissue pervachng their leafstalks, and which is cap- 

 able of being employed for weaving purposes, for making 

 paper, &c. One species, Jf. textHis, is especially valuable 

 on this account. It furnishes what is known as Manilla 

 hemp, the plant being cultivated in the Philippine Islands 

 for the sake of its fibre, the finer kinds of wluch are woven 

 into beautiful shawls, and the coarser employed in the munu- 

 facture of cordage for ships, &c. A very large supply of 

 fibre, adapted for papermaking and other purposes, could 

 be obtained at comparatively little cost from this and vari- 

 ous species of plantain. 



Several species are cultivated in hothouses in this country 

 for their foliage or for their fruit. J/, chinensis, also called 

 Caveiidishii, a dwarf species from China, produces fruit 

 abundantly in our hothouses. M. Ensete is a native of 

 Abyssiuia, where it was discovered by the traveller Bruce. 

 Its fruit is dry and inedible, containing a few lai-ge stony 

 seeds ; but the base of the flower-stalk is cooked and eaten 

 by the natives. A plant of tliese species was for many years 

 one of the chief ornaments in the palm-house at Kew, 

 its leaves being upwards of twenty feet long, and traversed 

 by a stout vivid red rib, while the ti-unk attained a cir- 

 cumference ol" nine feet in three years. It was remarked 

 by Bruce that on ancient Egyptian sculptures repre- 

 sentations of Lsis with ears of corn, and the foUage of 

 the bauana occm-, and sometimes car\nugs are met with 

 showing the hippopotamus destroying the bauana. Now 

 the true banana is not a native of Egj-pt; hence Bruce 

 surmised that the Abyssinian Eiisete was intended. The 

 hippopotamus typifies the Nile, the inundations of which 

 have gone so far as to destroy not only the wheat, but 

 also the Ensete which was to supply its place. — [M. T. M.] 



I HE ANALYSIS OF CINCHON.A. BARK. 

 Mr. A. C. Dixon is good enougli to write in the in- 

 terests of planters and others as follows : — " A para- 

 graph ill your paper on Saturday in rcgaril to tile 



