I 



The Banana and the Plantain. 



I 



CHAPTER XIII. 



THE CHIEF NUTRITIVE PLANTS OF THE TOERID ZONE. 



Rice — Various Aspect of the Rice-fields at diiFerent Seasons — Ladang and Sawa 

 Rice — The Cultivation of Rice in South Carolina of modern Date. — The Rice- 

 bird — Great Mortality among the Negroes — Arracan and Pegu — Growing 

 Importance of the Port of Akyab — Maize — First imported from America by 

 Columbus — Its enormous Productiyeness — Its Cultivation in the United States 

 — Its wide zone of Cultivation — Maize-beer, or Chicha — Millet, Dhoiirra — 

 The Bread Fruit — Its Importance in the South Sea Islands — History of its 

 Transplantation to the West Indies — Adventurels' of Bligh and Christian — 

 Pitcairn Island — Bananas — Their ancient Cultivation — Avaca or Manilla 

 Hemp — Humboldt's Remarks on the Banana — The Traveller's Tree of Mada- 

 gascar — The Cassava Root — Tapioca — Yams — Batatas — Quinoa — Arrow- 

 root — Taro — Tropical Fruit Trees — The Chirimoya — The Litchi — The 

 Mangosteen — The Mango. 



OF all the cereals there is none that affords food to so vast a 

 multitude as the rice-plant (Oryza sativa), on whose grains 

 from time immemorial the countless millions of south-eastern 

 Asia chiefly subsist. 



From its primitive seat, on the Ganges or the Sikiang, its 

 cultivation has gradually spread not only over the whole tropical 

 zone, but even far beyond its bounds, as it thrives both in the 



