CHAPTER I 

 THE PLANT 



THE banana is a well-known edible fruit, the product 

 of cultivated varieties of either Musa sapientum, Musa 

 Cavendishii, or Musa acuminata. The first -named is 

 cultivated extensively for the export of the fruit in Jamaica 

 and Central America ; M. Cavendishii is grown largely 

 in the Canary Isles, and is generally known as the Canary 

 or Chinese banana ; M. acuminata is grown in the Malay 

 Region as well as M. sapientum. 



In the earliest account of the West Indies, the " bonana," 

 as it was spelt, was clearly distinguished from the plantain 

 (Musa paradisiaca) ; but in the Old World, the fruits of 

 these two plants are often both called plantains. The 

 plants are very much alike, but in the fruiting stage they 

 can readily be distinguished by the novice the fruiting- 

 stalk of banana plants being naked between the fruit and 

 the large purple knob of sterile flowers at its apex, while 

 the fruiting -stalk of the plantain does not lengthen much, 

 and the sterile flowers do not all drop off, so that the 

 stalk is fairly covered. The Chinese or Canary banana 

 is like the plantain in this respect, but there is never an& 

 difficulty in distinguishing between the two, as the Chinese 

 banana is a dwarf plant and its fruit is much smaller. 

 The plantain requires much better soil than the banana 

 plant, and a bunch is worth in money three or four times 

 the value of a bunch of bananas. The plantain fruit is 

 much larger than the banana, and is used before it is ripe, 

 cooked roasted or boiled instead of bread or potatoes. 

 Plantains are not exported to Great Britain, and only in 



1 A ' 



