BANANA CULTURE. 185 



and retain their stiffness for days ; and, holding a cupful of 

 water, they make really beautiful bouquet-holders, that the 

 eye can not tell from the finest Japanese red lacquer ware. 



The number of fingers in a cluster of bananas varies 

 greatly, according to the variety of the plant or richness 

 of the soil. The Horse banana, which is most commonly 

 cultivated in Florida, bears from twenty to sixty bananas 

 in fingers or rows of eight to ten. They are usually large, 

 and, when suffered to remain on the plant till nearly ripe, 

 are as fine in flavor as one need wish, but when cut green 

 are apt to be insipid. 



Another banana, Hart's Choice, is superior to the Horse 

 banana in every respect. Both of these varieties will 

 stand a greater degree of cold than any others of their 

 race, and the fruit of each is yellow when ripe, but these 

 are the only main points of resemblance. 



Hart's Choice, a native of the Bahamas, is stout of stem 

 and does not break down beneath the weight of its fruit 

 in a gale, as the Horse banana frequently does. It blos- 

 soms early, and in warm weather the fruit may be cut in 

 ninety days thereafter. The other variety is often from 

 one hundred to one hundred and twenty days in ripening. 

 Hart's Choice bears from fifty to one hundred bananas in 

 a cluster. The fruit is four inches long and one and a 

 half in diameter, with a clear, golden-yellow skin, slim as 

 a kid glove; the flesh is firm, yet melting and buttery, 

 sweet and highly aromatic, but not musky like so many of 

 the banana tribe. 



There is no finer banana than this in the world, and 

 Florida owes a debt of gratitude to Mr. E. H. Hart, of 

 Federal Point, whose twelve years' patient efforts and ex- 

 periments led at last to the discovery of the "Hart's 

 Choice" banana, or, as some of our nurserymen have 

 chosen to call it, "Golden Early." 



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