450 



BANANA 



BANANA 



one species, and the botanical nomenclature is con- 

 fused. Some species produce fiber. Consult A baca and 

 Musa. 



The banana plant is a great perennial herb. It 

 grows 10 to even 30 feet tall, and produces a bunch of 

 fruit, and the stalk then dies or becomes weak; in the 



meantime, suckers 

 have arisen from the 

 rootstock to take its 

 place. The peculiar 

 flower-bearing of the 

 banana is shown in 

 Fig. 462, which illus- 

 trates the tip of a 

 flower - cluster. This 

 cluster may be likened 

 to a giant elonga- 

 ting bud, with large, 

 tightly overlapping 

 scales or bracts. Three 

 of these bracts are 

 shown at a a a. in 

 different stages of the 

 463. Plantain banana. (X|) flowering. As they 



rise or open, the 



flowers below them expand. The bracts soon fall. The 

 flowers soon shed their envelopes, but the styles, 6, 

 persist for a time. The ovaries soon swell into bananas, 

 c. The bracts are royal purple and showy. 



The banana has come to be one of the most popular 

 fruits in North America, due to the cheapness of its 

 cultivation and transportation, ease of handling, long- 

 keeping qualities, and adaptability to many uses. The 

 source of supply is mostly Jamaica, Costa Rica, Cuba, 

 Honduras, and latterly the northern shores of Colombia. 

 In the tropics, the ordinary bananas are cooked and 

 used as a vegetable rather more than as a fruit to be 

 eaten from the hand. The plantains, which are coarser 

 and harder fruits and thicker, are always cooked. A 

 form of cooking banana used in parts of tropical 

 America is shown in Fig. 463. Of the banana itself 

 there are many varieties. The common large fruit in 

 northern markets is the Martinique, Jamaica, Gros 

 Michel or Bluefields. A red variety, the Baracoa or 

 Red Jamaica, is sometimes seen. In the tropics, vari- 

 ous very small forms are grown for local consumption. 

 These are fragile and do not keep long, and are rarely 

 seen in the markets North. One of them, known as the 

 "fig" in Trinidad, is shown in Fig. 464; the fruits are 

 about 3 inches long. The dwarf or Cavendish banana 

 is grown extensively in the Canary Islands, and appar- 

 ently also in Bermuda; and it is not uncommon as an 

 ornamental plant in conservatories. 



It is said that the banana was first imported into the 

 United States in 1804 by Captain John N. Chester of 

 the schooner Reynard, the lot consisting of thirty 

 bunches. The first full cargo is said to have been 1,500 

 bunches brought to New York in 1830 on the schooner 

 Harriet Smith, chartered by John Pearsall of the firm 

 of J. & T. Pearsall. Two or three cargoes would appear 

 each year, until about 1857 William C. Bliss entered the 



banana- importing 

 business, securing 

 his supply from 

 BaraQoa, Cuba, 

 and taking the 

 trade to Boston. 

 In 1869, he se- 

 cured a small car- 

 fo from Jamaica, 

 n recent years, 

 the Jamaica- 

 United States 

 banana trade has 

 assumed very 

 464. A hand of the "fig" banana, (x H) large proportions. 



In the United States, there is little commercial culti- 

 vation of bananas, since the frostless zone is narrow and 

 the fruit can be grown so much more cheaply in Central 

 America and the West Indies. Small banana planta- 

 tions are common in southern Florida, however, and 

 even 'as far north as Jacksonville. They are also grown 

 in extreme southern Louisiana, and southwestward to 

 the Pacific coast. The plants will endure a slight frost 

 without injury. A frost of five or six degrees will kill 

 the leaves, but if the plants are nearly full grown at 

 the time, new foliage may appear and fruit may form. 

 If the entire top is killed, new suckers will spring up 

 and bear fruit the following year. A stalk, or trunk, 

 bears but once; but the new sprouts which arise from the 

 roots of the same plant continue the fruit-bearing. A 

 strong sprout should bear when twelve to eighteen 

 months old (from two to three years in hothouses;. 



465. A bearing banana plant. 



The plantation will, therefore, continue to bear for 

 many years. A bearing stalk, as grown in southern 

 California, is shown in Fig. 465. 



The species mostly in demand for fruiting seldom or 

 never produce seeds, and naturally increase by suckers. 

 The suckers are most readily separated from the parent 

 rootstock by a spade. This is a slow process of increase, 

 but the suckers so produced make large and vigorous 

 plants. A quicker method of propagation is to cut the 

 entire rootstock into small, wedge-shaped pieces, leav- 

 ing the outer surface of the root about 1 by 2 inches i 

 size, planting in light, moist soil, with the point of the 

 wedge down and the outer surface but slightly covered. 

 The best material for covering these small pieces is fine 

 peat, old leaf-mold, mixed moss and sand, or other 

 light material that is easily kept moist. The beds 

 so planted should be in full open sunshine i 

 tropical climate, or given bottom heat and plenty o 

 light if in the plant-house. The small plants from root- 

 cuttings should not be allowed to remain in the origin 

 bed longer than is necessary to mature one or two leaves, 

 as that treatment would stunt them. 



