488 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



more recently the shorter distance and better fruit have given the 

 advantage to the nearer islands ; and now, while New Orleans 

 still draws from the older source, Cuba and Jamaica supply the 

 North almost exclusively ; and of these two, Jamaica is the 

 more fertile, yields better fruit, is the more healthful in climate, 

 the more beautiful for scenery, the more agreeable for residence 

 or travel. A visit to the " gem of the Antilles, then/' may show us 

 something of the growth and treatment of this fruit which has 

 come to vie with our own apples as a staple article in our dietary. 



Like the palms and the grains, the banana plant is one of the 

 " endogenous " plants of the older botanists. Its nearest relatives 

 familiar in our climate are the Cannas, of late much grown, 

 which give to our summer lawns an air so distinguished and 

 so tropical. While broad-leaved, like the Cannas, the banana 

 plant has the treelike aspect of the palms, with a stout, erect, and 

 rounded bole capped by the splendid cluster of spreading leaves. 

 Yet, unlike the palms, it is not truly a tree ; for, while the palms, 

 like all trees, have solid, woody trunks, albeit constructed on a 

 plan radically different from that of the woody plants of our own 

 fields, the apparent trunk of the " banana tree " is made up only 

 of the soft, sheathing bases of the leaves. These arise from the 

 true stem, a rounded, fleshy mass at the surface of the ground, 

 from which also the roots descend. The huge leaf -bases, several 

 feet in length, tightly inclose each other and form a compact 

 body as thick as a man's thigh, narrowing upward into short leaf- 

 stalks, which bear the large though graceful oblong blades. 

 Within this cylinder of leaf -bases is the growing-point, or bud, 

 from which new leaves continue to be pushed forth until the 

 plant is full grown. Each leaf emerges in its turn from the 

 center of the crown of leaves, a beautiful, erect roll, pushing 

 straight upward into the air. Gradually unrolling as it finds 

 room, the blade at last flattens out and bends to one side, and an- 

 other leaf is added to the crown. Few leaves are more attractive 

 than these young banana leaves in their first freshness of delicate 

 green, of perfect form and grace, and of spotless purity. But 

 with increasing age the color deepens, and the first wind and rain 

 tear the exquisite blade in numberless places between its parallel 

 veins ; so that an old leaf becomes finally but two rows of rib- 

 bons and tatters, dull or dry, fringing a battered leaf -stalk. 



After the last leaf has pushed forth and the foliage crown is 

 complete, there appears from its middle the bud for which all the 

 previous activity of the plant has been but the preparation. It 

 emerges as a lanceolate mass borne on a rapidly lengthening 

 stalk. The compact bud may be seen to be composed of close-set 

 purple bracts of fleshy, leaflike texture, tightly overlapping. 

 After a time the outer bract is raised from the underlying ones 



