CHAPTER XXXVII. 



THE BANANA. 



THE banana (Musa Sapientum), though a strictly tropical 

 plant, is often seen in gardens from Charleston south and 

 along the lower portions of the Gulf States, where it is used 

 chiefly for ornament, but after mild winters fruit is freely 

 produced. It is one of the most beautiful and graceful of all 

 members of the vegetable kingdom ; one species, M. Ensete, the 

 great Abyssinian banana, was pronounced by Charles Kings- 

 ley the most beautiful of any he had ever beheld. 



In the middle and even northern portions of Florida it was 

 grown in a small way for its fruit, until the large importations 

 by steamers from the West Indies and Central America, at low 

 prices, rendered its production there unprofitable. In the 

 extreme southern portions of the peninsula, however, where 

 there is little frost, it can still be raised to advantage. 



The large yellow bananas (Jamaica or Martinique) and the 

 red, or Baracoa, are the best and most profitable for market. 

 These varieties require too long a season for any place out- 

 side of the tropics. In middle Florida an inferior sort called 

 Orinoco, and a very delicate, high-flavored variety, Hart, 

 are the best to cultivate, as they ripen sooner and are the 

 most hardy. Farther south the dwarf Jamaica (J/. Caven- 

 dishii), is preferred as being least liable to be prostrated by 

 high winds, and, though short and stout, produces very large 

 bunches. The only practicable mode of protection in winter 

 against frost is by banking with earth or sods ground the stem 

 two or three feet high. Then, if the exposed portion above 

 should be killed, it is cut off in spring when the earth is drawn 

 away, and the stump remaining will grow up and blossom in 

 time to perfect fruit before the following winter. Propaga- 

 tion is effected by suckers or offsets, planted eight or ten feet 

 apatt in strong rich soil. Each stalk produces but one cluster, 



653 



