240 THE BOOK OF USEFUL PLANTS 



potatoes or thirty-three pounds of wheat; both 

 of these northern crops acquired, too, only by 

 incessant sweat of the brow and muscular exertion. 

 The pisang is the tropical staff of life for white as 

 well as natives, as wholesome and necessary as 

 bread, and an equivalent of the latter as a starchy 

 food. It comes to one with the earliest breakfast 

 cup, appears at every meal, arrives with the after- 

 noon tea tray, and always ends the late dinner as 

 the inevitable accompaniment of cheese. " 



The popularity of our yellow banana is partly 

 due to the very convenient package it comes in, 

 and to the fact that it is not sticky nor messy, 

 nor does it need "fixing" before children can eat 

 it. The tough skin keeps the soft inside clean, 

 yet it parts easily enough. The seeds have been 

 dwarfed to mere remnants by generations of repro- 

 duction by suckers. 



Banana meal, made of the dried flesh of ripe or 

 green fruit, and evaporated slices are on the mar- 

 ket. In this form we may know what the fruit 

 tastes like when it is not cut green. New recipes 

 for cooking bananas give us added pleasure in this 

 nutritious food. It has come to be ranked one of 

 the good salad fruits, when used before it is dead 

 ripe. It is served with Mayonnaise or French 

 dressing, alone or with nut meats. 



