Use of the Pisang and Ba7iana. 493 



Another, with somewhat reddish leaves, and the fruit also 

 reddish, very much resembles the former, but is very seldom 

 met with. I consider it to be Musa sapientum rubra. 



The pisang and the bananas, when cooked, are quite uninju- 

 rious; but, when raw, they are not very wholesome; and this is 

 particularly the case with the bananas. They are extremely 

 cold on the stomach, and difficult to digest. It is very dangerous 

 to drink even water after eating them, and spirituous liquors are 

 much more so, as the most alarming consequences may be ex- 

 pected to follow. The pisang is very nourishing, but has the 

 tendency of enlarging the stomach, particularly with children. 



The cultivation of the Mvis^: in tropical countries is very 

 simple, and almost without any rule whatever. It is planted, 

 when quite young, in coffee plantations, and generally between 

 the coffee plants, to which they form a shade; and they are 

 planted from 15 ft. to 20 ft. apart. After the fruit has been 

 gathered, the stem is cut down, and permitted to lie among the 

 coffee plants, where it soon decays, and serves as an article of 

 manure. It is propagated with ease and rapidity by shoots from 

 the root. A coffee plantation, when deserted altogether or ne- 

 glected, soon becomes transformed into an impenetrable pisang 

 forest, as the latter in due time chokes up the little coffee trees, 

 which soon begin to look ill and die. The Musa requires a 

 light but nourishing soil, and one that is rather moist than dry, 

 and very much exposed to the sun. Its size and strength de- 

 pend entirely on these circumstances- A plantation of pisang 

 has never a very inviting appearance, as the greater number of 

 the leaves are generally very much torn by the winds, and hang 

 down on the stems either in a half-green or withered state. The 

 above-named varieties bear plentifully, and each stem forms a 

 spike which produces from 60 to 400 or more fruits. They may 

 be cut off when not perfectly ripened, and hung up, when they 

 generally come to maturity all at once. When I was in the 

 valley of Aragua, in Venezuela, I saw a very remarkable oc- 

 currence in the coffee plantation of Palmar : a stem of a Miisa 

 paradisiaca had a large spike of fruit, the upper part of which 

 was M. paradisiaca, and the lower part M. sapientum. The 

 lowest blossoms were probably fructified by insects conveying to 

 them the pollen of M. sapientum. Varieties between these two, 

 with respect to the fruit, are not known, and I have never found 

 fully formed seed in any. 



Besides the stem of the Musa being used as an article of 

 manure, the leaves are also in great request as a covering for 

 huts, and as an umbrella for the coffee when it is being dried, 

 and for packing all kinds of objects. The leaves are very much 

 used as a cooling remedy for wounds and swellings from burns 

 or irritation, and they are, therefore, laid under the saddle on 



