252 TRINIDAD. 



height of from five to six feet ; its grain is as large and white as 

 that of the Carolinas. 



Rice comes to maturity within three months and a-half ; heavy 

 showers prostrate it to the ground, and, in that state, if not cut 

 within a few days, it germinates. 



The inhabitants cultivate this grain generally for their own 

 use ; they reap and preserve it in the straw till required for use, 

 and then bruise it in a wooden mortar to separate the grain from 

 the husk a very tedious, imperfect, and consequently, a very 

 expensive process. 



The proportion of starch in prepared rice is 89*15 percent; of 

 gluten and other nitrogenous substances, 7*05 ; of fatty matter, 

 0-80 ; bran, only 1-10 (Payen) and yet it forms the basis of the 

 alimentary diet of the eastern populations. We import, annually, 

 from the United States and the East Indies, about three million 

 pounds of rice valued at 14,500 sterling. The importation from 

 the latter country has greatly and naturally increased with the immi- 

 gration of labourers from the same parts. Rice might be produced 

 here in sufficient quantity for the island consumption without en- 

 dangering the public health ; and large tracts of land which now lie 

 waste either from their comparative infertility, or from the diffi- 

 culty and consequent expense of draining the soil, might be thus 

 rendered highly productive. 



Guinea Corn (Andropogon sorghum and Andropogon sacchara- 

 tus) . Two species are cultivated here to a very slight extent, and 

 that not as an aliment, but rather as fodder; they are very 

 prolific, and might be raised as a supply of grain for poultry. 

 Indian corn, however, will always be preferred. 



Musacea? Plantain (Musa paradisiaca) . Like all cultivated 

 plants, the plantain has many varieties : there exist, however, three 

 distinct species. The Horn plantain (Musa paradisiaca) from 

 the resemblance the fruit bears to the horn of a young bull ; the 

 French and the Dominica plantain (Musa regia) ; Bananas (Musa 

 sapientum). The Horn plantain is more extensively cultivated than 

 the other species, being hardier and not requiring frequent replant- 

 ing ; but though the fruit is much larger, whence it also obtains the 

 soubriquet of Horse plantain, its bunch is not so well supplied, 

 having ordinarily but twenty-five, and often fewer, plantains or 

 fingers to the bunch ; as an edible, it is also much coarser than 

 the other species. French or Maid plantain: the body of this 



