208 



PLANTS AND MAN 



with the seeds minute black specks. After forming fruit, the 

 banana plant dies to the ground, the subterranean stem sending 

 up a new shoot the next growing season. Several hundred varie- 

 ties of bananas are grown over a widespread tropical area, but 

 only a few of these reach American markets. Bananas are picked 

 green in order to be transported without injury. Ripe bananas, 

 being rich in carbohydrates, fats and proteins, are an excellent 



LEAF BASES* 



Fig. 147. — ^Banana plants resemble small trees but are in reality gigantic herbs 



bearing huge clusters of berry-fruits. 



food, with a food value three times that of wheat. The American 

 supply comes from the West Indies, Central America and Hawaii. 

 The Palm Family has contriblited two fruits of great antiquity 

 to the human menu — the date and the coconut. The date palm 

 (fig. 148) unknown today in the wild state, is one of the oldest of 

 cultivated plants, its history dating to 3000 B.C. Perhaps a native 

 of India or Arabia, it was certainly cultivated in the latter coun- ^l 

 try before the rise of the Mediterranean civilizations. Date^j 

 palms are majestic trees reaching a height of a hundred feet. 



