M Tl?e fer^i^d^i) aQd LaLoQ. ^ 



THE BANANA. 



Musa Ensete. 



f-"^^^-"^ 



^HE majestic Abyssinian Banana is one of the best species for 

 greenhouse cultivation or outdoor decoration, its rich, 

 broad foliage being tougher than other varieties, enduring 

 our high winds to better advantage. 



It is easily raised from seed when sown in a greenhouse, 

 development being simply a matter of root room, water, and 

 rich potting material. 



Small plants may be grown in any window until too 

 bulky, when, if bedded in the open ground, they will give 

 grand results, if liberally supplied with manure and water. Being so easily 

 grown, it hardly pays to winter them, which may be done, however, in a light, 

 warm cellar. To do so, after the first frost cut off the foliage three or four feet 

 from the ground, lifting with all the root possible into a box or barrel, water 

 only sufficient to keep the roots from withering, bedding as at first. 



The subject of this photo reached over three feet in height the first season 

 in a large pot, transferred to a half-barrel it grew to eight the second, after which 

 it was planted out about the end of May in a rich compost of well-rotted manure, 

 loam and mold. The outdoor growth was more robust, and when cut down by 

 the frost it was upwards of twelve feet high, with the stalk measuring over four 

 feet in circumference at the ground. 



This grand specimen stands in the centre of a bed of some one thousand 

 plants of the New Hybrid Ever blooming Cannas, with a border of Caladium 

 Esculentum. 



As outside of Canada we are looked upon as a land of toboggan slides and 

 ice palaces, this view may at least take the chill off that impression. 



It is only fair to add that this is the first crop ever grown on this ground, 

 which is a piece of partly drained cedar swamp with springy bottom, broken for 

 the first time in the summer of 1894. The bed is also situated on the north 

 side of a six-foot terrace, the row of large oaks at the right cutting off the after- 

 noon sun. The view faces the north. 



Simcoe, Otit. H. H. CtRQff. 



( 404 ^ 



