FRUITS 



61 



looks like a palm tree but is in reality a herb, belongs to the 

 ginger family. It is thus described by a traveller in A. D. 1600 : 



' Bannana is the fruite whereof John Huyghen writeth 

 and calleth it Indian figs, this tree hath no branches, the fruit 

 groweth out of the tree and hath leaves at least a fathome 

 long and three spannes broad. Those leaves among the 

 Turkes are used for paper, and in other places the houses are 

 covered therewith ; there is no Wood upon the tree, the out- 



APPLES 



side (wherewith the tree is covered when it beginneth to wax 

 old) is like the middle part of a Sive, but opening it within 

 there is nothing but the leaves, which are rolled up round 

 and close together, it is as high as a man, on the top the 

 leaves begin to spring out, and rise up on end, and as the 

 young leaves come forth the old wither away, and begin to 

 drie untill the tree cometh to his growth and the fruit to 

 perfection : the leaves in the middle have a very thick veine, 

 which divideth it in two, and in the middle of the leaves out 

 of the heart of the tree, there groweth a flowre as bigge as 

 an Estridge Egge, of a russet colour, which in time waxeth 

 long like the stalk of a Colewort whereon the Figges grow 



