DE BANANA 225 



currant, and the blackberry, developed by the selective 

 action of small northern birds, can be popped at once into 

 the mouth and eaten whole ; they have no tough outer 

 rind or defensive covering of any sort. But big tropical 

 fruits, which lay themselves out for the service of large 

 birds or monkeys, have always hard outer coats, because 

 they could only be injured by smaller animals, who would 

 eat the pulp without helping in the dispersion of the useful 

 seeds, the one object really held in view by the mother 

 plant. Often, as in the case of the orange, the rind even 

 contains a bitter, nauseous, or pungent juice, while at times, 

 as in the pine-apple, the prickly pear, the sweet-sop, and 

 the cherimoyer, the entire fruit is covered with sharp pro- 

 jections, stinging hairs, or knobby protuberances, on pur- 

 pose to warn off the unauthorised depredator. It was this 

 line of defence that gave the banana in the first instance 

 its thick yellow skin ; and, looking at the matter from the 

 epicure's point of view, one may say roughly that all 

 tropical fruits have to be skinned before they can be eaten. 

 They are all adapted for being cut up with a knife and fork, 

 or dug out with a spoon, on a civilised dessert-plate. As 

 for that most delicious of Indian fruits, the mango, it has 

 been well said that the only proper way to eat it is over a tub 

 of water, with a couple of towels hanging gracefully across 

 the side. 



The varieties of the banana are infinite in number, and, 

 as in most other plants of ancient cultivation, they shade 

 off into one another by infinitesimal gradations. Two prin- 

 cipal sorts, however, are commonly recognised the true 

 banana of commerce, and the common plantain. The 

 banana proper is eaten raw, as a fruit, and is allowed accord- 

 ingly to ripen thoroughly before being picked for market ; 

 the plantain, which is the true food-stuff of all the equa- 

 torial region in both hemispheres, is gathered green and 



Q 



