348 NEW AMERICAN ORCHARDtST. 



of sand and vegetable mould or manure. The pine-apple 

 requires much heat and moisture. 



PLANTAIN. (Musa Paradisiaca.) Phillips. Loudon. 

 Some assign this plant to Guinea, some to the East Indies, 

 whence it was carried to the Canary Islands and the West 

 Indies and Egypt. It is an herbaceous perennial plant, 

 as it dies or is cut down annually. It rises with a soft, 

 herbaceous, conical stalk, fifteen or twenty feet high, with 

 leaves issuing from the top, six feet long and two feet broad. 

 The fruit is produced on the summit in spikes, which some- 

 times weigh forty pounds. It is nine or ten inches long, 

 and formed like a cucumber, but pointed at the ends; of a 

 pale yellow color> and soft, sweet, luscious flavor. The 

 fruit makes excellent tarts, and excellent sweetmeats, and 

 is the most wholesome of all confectionary. It forms a 

 principal part of the food of the negroes, who either broil 

 or roast it; they boil it with salt beef, pork, and salt fish, 

 and prefer it to bread, as do the Europeans. Dr. Wright 

 says, the Island of Jamaica would scarcely be habitable 

 without this fruit, as no species of provisions could supply 

 its place. Dampier calls it the king of fruits. A planta- 

 tion affords a succession of fruit for a whole year. It 

 thrives only in rich, flat ground, and is propagated by 

 suckers from the roots. 



BANANA TREE. (Musa sapientum.) 



It differs little from the plantain, having the stalks 

 marked with dark purple stripes and spots, and the fruit is 

 shorter and rounder. The fruit is more mellow, and is 

 either eaten raw, or roasted, in fritters, preserves, marma- 

 lade ; and the fermented juice affords an excellent wine. 

 This fruit, according to Swinburn, grows in the open air 

 at Reggio. From the fibres of the tree of the Banana, 

 cloth and cordage are made, of uncommon strength. 



M. Humboldt has calculated that the same ground which 

 will produce four thousand pounds of bananas, will only 

 produce thirty-three pounds of wheat, and ninety-nine 

 pounds of potatoes. 



AKEE TREE. (Blighia sapida.) Loudon, 

 The fruit is esteemed in the West Indies as very whole- 



