n 



SPECIAL KONA REPORT. 



This report was completed and was sent to the printer on Jan- 

 uary I'b. Three hundred copies will be available about February 

 20. 



Very respectfully, 



L. K. Larrison, 

 Superintendent of Hydrography. 



GOLDEN FINGERS. 



The Story of the Banana. 



The golden apples of the Hesperides have ever held a fascina- 

 tion for children — young and old — we are all of us familiar with 

 the stories of that wonderful golden fruit, luscious beyond all 

 others, and possessed of magical powers of nourishment. 



Though incurable "matter-of-fact" people try to convince us 

 that the golden apples were nothing but oranges, fairy fruits in 

 a fairy garden they will always remain to the rightminded. 



But fairy land is a long way ofif, and as we get older it grows 

 more and more difficult to get there. After all, the golden apples 

 were not of much use to ordinary folk ; they were kept away 

 from the confines of the garden by a dragon. It was only the 

 very cunning or the very strong who succeeded in plucking the 

 spoil. 



Cheap Nonrishuient of Millions. 



The golden-fingered fruit of today has no such limitation. The 

 banana is open for the world to pluck, and offers cheap nourish- 

 ment to millions. In comparison with it, the value of the fabled 

 golden apple sinks into insignificance. If ever there were a true 

 fairy story it is that of the banana. 



The banana (Musa Sapientiim) and the plantain (Musa Para- 

 disiaca) — it is impossible to draw a line of distinction between 

 them — are widely spread over the whole of the tropics, both of 

 the western and eastern hemisphere, but develop better in the 

 West than in the East. 



Hozv the Banana Grozvs. 



The term "tree" is scarcely accurate as applied to the banana. 

 What is termed the stem, which is from 8 to 12 feet high, is in 

 reality compound and convolute sheaths of leaves over each 



