THE BANANA. ] 421 



includes those hardy varieties which tolerate the cold more 

 than others, such as the common banana of Sicily intro- 

 duced here in 1913, which produces a fairly long bunch 

 with fruit of middling size, smooth, curved upwards, floury, 

 with a sweet luscious taste. The so-called St. Michaels 

 banana is another sort with a very tall and very .thick 

 stem, and a very large but rather short bunch, bearing 

 very large angular fruits beaked at the end, with a sweet 

 luscious flesh, but somewhat fibrous. This banana which 

 was introduced here towards 1870, is in reality a cooking 

 variety, but is generally eaten raw, and has partly super- 

 seded other more ancient sorts which are probably of 

 better quality. These as well as other sorts introduced 

 probably from the east, and known generally as 'fig- 

 banana', and certain varieties introduced from Ceylon in 

 1914, among which are the Kolikuttu, the Alikehel and 

 the Rathkehel or Red Banana, belong also to the species 

 above mentioned, although the species itself is often 

 considered botanically as a subspecies of the following. 



Musa Sapientum Lin. French = bananier figuier. 

 The species is almost esclusively tropical and therefore 

 cannot thrive well in our climate. It is hardly distinguish- 

 able from the former species by the following characters. 

 The stem is tall, but sometimes rather dwarf, clad with 

 leaf-sheaths which are always blotched or streaked purp- 

 lish black. The leaves are long and broad with a rather 

 short stalk, usually deep green, and hardly glaucous on . 

 the upper surface, the stalk or petiole being also blotched 

 or streaked purplish black. The sterile flowers drop off 

 as soon as they bloom. It is cultivated extensively in 

 the East Indies, Tropical Africa, the Indian Archipelago, 

 the Hawai Islands etc., and has produced many good 

 varieties, among which is the celebrated Jamaica banana 

 which is a very good sort and probably the best of all tall 

 bananas for trade purposes, as it keeps well and ships 

 well for long distances. Another good sort is the Brazil- 



