PLANTAIN. 303 



the tree from which our first parents made themselves 

 aprons, as from their size, which is from five to seven 

 feet in length, and from one to two feet in breadth, 

 they could not have required sewing together for that 

 purpose. These leaves are said to be as strong as parch- 

 ment. The leaves of the plantain, as well as the banana, 

 grow so rapidly, that by placing a thread, they will be 

 found to grow an inch in an hour. The young leaves are 

 so soft, that they are employed in dressings for blisters, 

 &c. When full grown, they are so large that they are 

 used as substitutes for napkins and table-cloths : when 

 dried, they are made into mats and stuffings for mat- 

 tresses, &c. 



If a knife be thrust into a plantain-tree, there will come 

 out a great quantity of clear water, which is very rough 

 and astringent, stopping all sorts of fluxes. 



The fruit of the banana-tree has been ripened in our 

 hothouses ; but as the tree grows very tall, the size of the 

 leaves requires more room than most gardeners are will- 

 ing to allow it in the stove. 



Mr. Swinburn tells us that the Musa grows very well 

 in the open air at Reggio. 



From the rapidity of the growth of the banana, it is of 

 too porous a nature to merit the name of wood, and the 

 Indians have ever been accustomed to make cordage, and 

 a kind of cloth from its fibres. The celebrated circum- 

 navigator, Dampier, noticed the process more than a 

 century ago as follows : 



" They take the body of the tree, clear it of its out- 

 ward bark and leaves, cut it into quarters, put it into the 

 sun, when the moisture exhales ; they then take hold of 

 the threads at the ends, and draw them out : they are as 

 big as brown thread ; and of this they make cloth in 

 Mindanas, called saggen." 



In Jamaica, there have been upwards of two hundred 



