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the apple : when dried in the sun, it re- 

 sembles a delicious fig. It also makes a good 

 marmalade, which is recommended as a great 

 relief for coughs. The fruit of the banana- 

 tree is said to comfort the heart, is cooling, 

 and refreshes the spirits. Labat states, that 

 when the natives of the West Indies under- 

 take a voyage, they make part of their provi- 

 sion to consist of a paste of banana, which, 

 in case of need, serves them for nourishment 

 and drink. For this purpose they take ripe 

 bananas, and having scjueezed them through 

 a fine sieve, form the solid fruit into small 

 loaves, which are dried in the sun, or in hot 

 ashes, after being previously; wrapped in the 

 leaves of Indian flowering reed. 



The fruit of the banana-tree is about four 

 or five inches long, of the size and shape of a 

 middling cucumber; it generally grows in 

 bunches, weighing upwards of. twelve pounds. 

 The Spaniards have a conceit, that if you cut 

 this, or the fruit of the plantain athwart, or 

 crossways, there appears a cross in the middle 

 of the fruit, and therefore they will not cut 

 any, but break them. The Franciscans de- 

 dicate this fruit to the Muses, and therefore 

 call it musa. The Portuguese call it jftcus 

 derta. Lodovicus Romanus, and Brocard, 

 who wrote a Description of the Holy Land, 



x 



