The Bamboo. 



CHAPTER Y. 



BANANA, BAMBOO, BAOBAB. 



npHESE are perhaps the three strongest workmen 

 ^- employed in the vegetable world they have 

 withstood centuries, and no living thing rivals them 

 in power. 



Certain writers have tried to prove that the ba- 

 nana was the tree of life placed in the middle of par- 

 adise, the forbidden fruit, which, tempting the mother 

 of the human race, " caused all our woes ;" and besides, 

 that it was of its leaves that Adam and Eve made 

 themselves aprons when, after their sin, they dreaded 

 to meet their Creator. 



The inhabitants of America, Africa, and India, 



