RICE — GUINEA CORN — MUSACEJ3 PLANTAIN. 229 



import annually 15,899,319 lbs. of rice, value £132,543; duty 

 paid in 1879, £17,224. The importation from the East Indies 

 has greatly increased with the immigration of labourers from 

 that country ; the quantity imported in 1879 was 14,762,749 lbs. 

 Rice might be produced here in sufficient quantity for the 

 island consumption, without any danger to the public health; 

 and large tracts of land, which now lie comparatively waste, 

 either from their infertility or from the difficulty and consequent 

 expense of draining the soil, might be thus rendered highly 

 productive. 



We cannot, however, hope for such a desirable consumma- 

 tion unless some person undertakes the cultivation of rice on a 

 certain scale ; or, again, several persons might join in the under- 

 taking, and import at the same time the necessary machines for 

 the thrashing and cleaning of the grain. A gentleman recently 

 imported one such machine, in the hope that he might obtain 

 from Coolies a sufficient quantity of rice in husk to make a fair 

 experiment, either by buying from them, or by inducing them 

 to send their rice to be cleaned. I am under an impression 

 that he has not yet had the opportunity of making a trial. I 

 wish him God speed. 



Guinea Corn (Andropogon sorghum and Andropogon sacchara- 

 tus) .-—Two species are cultivated here to a very slight extent, 

 and that not as an aliment, but rather as fodder ; they are very 

 prolific, and might be raised as a supply of grain for poultry. 

 Indian corn, however, will always be preferred. 



Musacea. — Plantain (Musa paradisiac a). — Like all cultivated 

 plants, the plantain has many varieties : there exist, however, 

 three distinct species. The Horn plantain (Musa paradisiaca) — 

 from the resemblance the fruit bears to the horn of a young 

 bull ; the French and the Dominica plantain (Musa regia) ; 

 Bananas (Musa sapientum). The Horn plantain is more exten- 

 sively cultivated than the other species, being hardier and not 

 requiring frequent replanting; but though the fruit is much 

 larger, whence it also obtains the sobriquet of Horse plantain, its 

 bunch is not so well supplied, having ordinarily but twenty-five, 

 and often fewer, plantains or fingers to the bunch ; as an edible, 

 it is also much coarser than the other species. French or Maid 

 plantain : the body of this plant is of a dark violet colour, as 

 also the nerves of the leaves ; the fruit is smaller than that of 





