THE BANANA ] 425 



autumn before they undergo the adverse influence of bad 

 weather and cold, owing to which the fruit maturing in 

 winter or early spring has a poor appearance and is 

 deficient in flavour. For the same reason a plant which 

 has reached full development in autumn but had not time 

 to form the bunch before the arrival of cold weather, 

 suffers so much from the destruction of its foliage that the 

 bunch which is produced in spring is comparatively small 

 and always defective. There are few favoured localities 

 in these Islands where the banana can keep most of its 

 foliage during winter, with the result that active vegeta- 

 tion is checked but not altogether suspended, and in these 

 localities the production of fine bunches proceeds with 

 hardly any interruption, and the cultivation of banana 

 though necessarily on a small scale, is very remunerative. 

 The optimum of temperature is from 25 to 30 C. in the 

 shade, and when this temperature is exceeded, and the 

 solar radiation as shown by the solar thermometer goes 

 up to 65 C., the foliage may become partly or wholly 

 scorched, particularly if the weather is calm and sultry, 

 and irrigation is not properly attended to. 



The banana requires a loose and porous soil, fairly 

 deep and well moist, but without stagnant humidity. The 

 plant grows well in our porous red soils, which are always 

 somewhat sandy and are generally well drained. A 

 certain degree of salinity of the soil is not injurious to the 

 development of the banana, and the presence of much 

 organic matter, such as leaf-mould and stable manure, is 

 decidedly beneficial, because it keeps up the soil well 

 open and supplies the potash and nitrogen in sufficient 

 quantity to maintain the luxurious vegetation of the 

 plant. 



For commercial purposes the dwarf or Chinese 

 banana is preferable to all others, being a good table 

 *ruit and well productive, and both the plant and the 

 fruit are fairly resistant to cold and to the inclemencies 



