760 



CLEANINGS IN BKK Tl LTUHK 



Dec. 1 



FTG. 1. — BANANA - PLANTS AS THEY APPEARKD IN W. A. PRYAL'S GARDEN, OAKLAND, 



CALIFORNIA, TWO YEARS AGO. 



provided one runs for extracted honey. I 

 shall try his plan more extensively next 

 summer. 



Ashton, 111. 



[We hope you will keep us informed of 

 your further experience with the Stuart 

 treatment next season. — Ed.] 



BANANAS AND BEES. 



A Tropical Plant Yielding Valuable Fruit and 

 Much Pollen. 



BY W. A. PRYAL. 



Few indeed are those persons who have 

 not eaten bananas and formed a fondness 

 for them, especially when they have been 

 secured in the right condition for edible y>ut- 

 poses; but I am sure not many have seen a 

 banana-plant in blossom. It is a remarka- 

 ble bloomer. One might be in the further- 

 most part of the globe when a banana-plant 

 at home had just commenced to bloom, and 

 he could finish his sight-seeing, and leisure- 

 ly proceed homeward, and still be in time 

 to see the flower in all its peculiar glory — 

 possibly being even then some weeks ahead 

 of its final dissolution. 



A blooming banana, especially Musa en- 

 cnfe, known as the Abyssinian banana, is 



the variety that I am now writing of, and 

 not the fruiting sort, 3f. sapientum, though, 

 I believe, the manner of flowering is about 

 the same in both varieties. I have never 

 seen the latter during its period of inflores- 

 cence, though I have seen it bearing fruit. 



The past season we had a couple of the 

 ornamental bananas bloom on our place. I 

 had seen them on numerous occasions pre- 

 viously, but never at such close range that 

 I could study them. Before one of our 

 plants had finished blooming I took a tall 

 ladder, and, by means of a rope and long 

 butcher-knife, cut the flower at the bend of 

 its "goose-neck," and lowered it to the 

 ground with the rope. An examination 

 showed its manner of blooming. It is very 

 interesting indeed. 



Having made photographs of one of the 

 plants at various stages of its growth, I am 

 enabled to show some of its life-history, as 

 it were. Here I might mention that these 

 plants were a few of a lot raised by the 

 writer's father from seed sown a couple of 

 years before his death, three years ago. 

 Some of them were planted in the garden, 

 where they were allowed to grow undisturb- 

 ed winter and summer. A few were kept 

 in large pots for decorative purposes. Most 

 years our winters are sufficiently frosty to 

 injure partially or nip the foliage of these 

 bananas, though never enough to do them 



