96 



Under cultivation the fruit seldom pro- pine Islands. The fiber obtained from 



duces perfect seeds, b.ut if developed in this plant is the Manila or Cebu hemp 



a state of nature it is said that they will of commerce, which is used, in this coun- 



mature and that many varieties are pro- try, mainly for the manufacture of bind- 



duced. ing- twines, cordage and mats. In France 



The banana is frequently used in coffee the finer fibers are quite extensively used 



plantations to make the necessary shade for the manufacture of fine veils, crapes, 



for the young coffee plants and at the hats, delicate underclothing and many 



same time it yields an income while the other articles of apparel. The natives of 



planter is waiting for the production of the Philippines call this fiber Abaca. It 



the coffee berry. is called Manila because most of the fiber 



Natives of the tropics have found the is exported from the seaport of that 



leaves a cool and useful thatching for the name. We are told that "Manila hemp 



roofs of their huts. began to be used extensively in this 



The unripe fruits contain a large per- country, in Salem and Boston, in 1824 



centage of starch and the pulp, when to 1827." 



dried and reduced to a powder, makes Probably the most peculiar of all the 

 an excellent and nutritious flour or meal, species is the Chinese banana (Musa Cav- 

 The ripe fruit contains about twenty endishii), which is extensively cultivated 

 per cent of starch, the remainder having in China and throughout the South Sea 

 been changed into sugar during the Islands. It is a dwarf, the plant seldom 

 process of ripening. Even intoxicating attaining a height of more than six feet, 

 drinks are made by the Africans from the It is robust and yields a great harvest 

 juice, known as "banana beer" and "ba- of fruit, a single bunch bearing from two 

 nana wine." It is not the fruit alone hundred to three hundred bananas, the 

 that is used as food, as also the pith, the flavor of which is excellent, 

 top of the flower cluster and the young The opposite of the Chinese form is 

 and tender shoots delight the taste and the Abyssinian (Musa ensete), which may 

 nourish the body. be called the giant plantain. It attains 

 The economic value of the fibers of a height of thirty or more feet and the 

 some of the species was known to the leaves are sometimes twenty feet long 

 Chinese and Japanese from remote times, by three feet wide. The fruit is pulpless 

 The fiber obtained from the leaves of and dry, but the inner part of the stalk 

 both the banana and the plantain are val- and the young stalks are boiled and used 

 uable in the manufacture of paper and for food. It is without doubt the most 

 fabrics of various kinds. handsome species of this wonderfully use- 

 One of the most interesting and valua- ful and beautiful group of plants, 

 ble of the species of Musa is the Wild William Kerr Higley. 

 Plantain (Musa textilis) of the Philip- 



