50, NUTRITIVE PLANTS. 



SECTION V. 



Banana.tree. 'Plantain-tree 

 Musa. Linn. 

 The genus Musa includes three known species, M. Paradisiac*, 

 or Plantain-tree; M. Sapientum, or Banana 5 and M. Troglytarum. 

 The two former bear an excellent food, and are in many other re- 

 spects peculiarly worthy of attention. The last has a scarlet berry 

 but not eatable. 



1. Plantain-tree. 

 Musa Paradisiaca. Linn. 



This is cultivated in all the islands of the West Indies, where the 

 fruit serves the Indians for bread ; and some of the white people 

 also prefer it to most other things, especially to the yams and cas- 

 sada bread. The plant rises with a soft stalk 15 or 20 feet high ; 

 the lower part of the stalk is often as large as a man's thigh, dimi- 

 nishing gradually to the top, where the leaves come out on every 

 side : these are often eight feet long, and from two to three broad, 

 with a strong fleshy mid-rib, and a great number of transverse veins 

 running from the mid-rib to the borders. The leaves are thin and 

 tender, so that where they are exposed to the open air, they are 

 generally torn by the wind ; for as they are large, the wind has 

 great power against them : these leaves come out from the centre 

 of the stalk, and are rolled up at their first appearance ; but when 

 they are advanced above the stalk, they expand and turn back, 

 ward. As these leaves come up rolled in this manner, their ad- 

 vance upward is so quick, that their growth may almost be disco- 

 vered by the naked eye : and if a fine line is drawn across level 

 with the top of the leaf, in an hour the leaf will be near an inch 

 above it. When the plant is grown to its full height, the spikes of 

 flowers appear in the centre, which is often near four feet long. 

 The flowers come out in bunches, those in the lower part of the 

 spike being the largest ; the others diminish in their si*2e upward. 

 Each of these bunches is covered with a sheath of a fine purple 

 colour, which drops, off when the flowers open. The upper part 

 of the spike is made up of male flowers, which are not succeeded 

 by fruit, but fall off with their covers. The fruit or plantain is 



