PLANTAIN, 301 



two or three inches in diameter; it forms a principal part 

 of the food of the negroes, who either roast or boil it 5 

 and when thus cooked, it is a palatable and strengthening 

 diet. It is often boiled in their mess of salt beef, pork, 

 or fish, &c. ; many Europeans, when accustomed to it, 

 prefer it to bread : and those who settle in America, when 

 they make a new plantation, generally begin with a good 

 plantain-walk, enlarging it as their family increases ; 

 some of the trees are always to be found in fruit, and this 

 is many times the sole food on which a family subsists. 

 These trees thrive only in a rich flat ground ; they will 

 not prosper in a poor sandy soil. When ripe, the fruit is 

 lusciously sweet, and makes good tarts. The Spaniards 

 dry and preserve it as a sweetmeat, and it is thought to be 

 the most wholesome of all confectionary. It is one of the 

 very best foods to fatten domestic animals and fowls, 

 giving a firmness and exquisite flavour to their flesh. 



The plantain is cultivated in Egypt, and most other 

 hot countries, where it grows to perfection in about ten 

 months from its first planting, to the ripening of its fruit. 

 This tree is only perennial by its roots, and dies down to 

 the ground when it has fruited, after which it is cut down : 

 several suckers then soon come up from the roots, which 

 in six or eight months produce fruit, so that by cutting 

 down the stalks at different times, there is a constant 

 succession of fruit all the year. 



When the plantain is grown to its full height, the 

 spikes of flowers appear in the centre, which is about 

 four feet long. The flowers come out in bunches, those 

 in the lower part of the spike being the largest ; each of 

 these bunches is covered with a sheath of a fine purple 

 colour, which drops off when the flowers open. The 

 upper part of the spike is made up of male flowers, which 

 are succeeded by the fruit. The plantain is of a pale 

 yellow colour when ripe, and the spikes of fruit often 



