260 NATURAL HISTORY OF HAWAII. 



favor amonsT the more intelligent growers, as it sells in the market at about 

 one-third more per bunch than does the common Chinese variety. Its fruit has a 

 tough, .slow-ripening, golden-yellow skin, and the hands, or clusters, grow in 

 large, very compactly-arranged bunches. 



The Chinese variety was introduced into the islands from Tahiti about 

 1855, and has long been the leading commercial banana. It is characterized 

 by its low growth and large bunches of yellow fruit of fine flavor and good 

 keeping qualities. Only a single bunch is produced by a plant. The fruit 

 ripens at all seasons, requiring, in low levels, ten to twelve months fuv the 

 bunch to mature: in higher elevations, twelve to eighteen months. 



It has been found that an acre of good ground under favorable conditions, 

 well watered and tilled, will produce in a year 1,200 bunches of bananas weigh- 

 ing sixty pounds each. AVhile dried banana and "banana flour" is prepared 

 from the fruit elsewhere, the common varieties in Hawaii have never been ex- 

 tensively iised in this way. 



Of the various cooking plantains very little is known outside of the tropics. 

 It is quite possible that when the value of the [)lantain becomes more generally 

 known as a winter substitute for vegetables, its export from Ila'.vaii will ma- 

 terially increase. 



As is generally known, the varieties of banaiuis most useful to man seldom 

 if ever reproduce from seed. They increase from suckers that spring up about 

 the base of the plant. If allowed to grow undisturbed a single plant will soon 

 develop a considerable clump, which may be divided and transplanted as desired. 



The leaves are interesting, as the parallel veins stand at right angles to the 

 mid-rib and are joined together to form the broad leaf. Heavy winds in many 

 places tear the large leaves into shreds, hence a sheltered location is usually 

 selected for the cultivation of the fruit. 



The flower of the banana is somewhat unusual in appearance. Each plant 

 bears but a single biuich of flowers which grows out of the center of the top 

 of the stock on the end of the elongated spike. It appears first as a purple-red 

 spike that curves downward as it grows. This spike-like head is made up of a 

 large number of flowers grouped in clu-sters, each cluster later developing into a 

 "liand" of bananas. As the clusters emerge they are covered by the thick, 

 reddish bracts which curl up and expose the flowers. In time the tubular, cream- 

 colored blossoms fall off, leaving the long ovaries. These in turn develop into 

 fruits. Each bunch of bananas contains from one to a dozen or more of these 

 clusters and each cluster from twelve to twenty-four bananas. 



So far, the banana in Hawaii is fairly free from disease and pests. Three 

 forms of fungus diseases are known to prey on the plant, but as yet they are 

 nowhere serious. Two species of nematode worms are somewhat troublesome, 

 and the cane borer, common throughout the group, has been occasionally found 

 boring in the stem. The red spider, which is well known to most gardeners, has 

 been instrumental in causing a brown smut to gain a foothold on the fruit. 



