220 THE BANANA 



rare nor difficult to obtain in good land from 80,000 to 

 120,000 kilogrammes. 



" The Catura is the banana the cultivation of which on 

 a large scale is the least difficult, but it is far from being 

 the sole variety cultivated in the Lower Parana. We 

 find there, in fact, numerous forms or varieties of the 

 Musa sapientum and Musa paradisiaca, amongst which 

 may be cited the Massao, Oura, Saint Thomas, belonging 

 to the series of lig or true banana ; the plantains Maranhao, 

 Da Terra, Falta Velhaga, Da India, &c. Of all these 

 bananas, and without speaking of the Catura, it is the 

 Massao which is the most commonly cultivated : it is, in 

 fact, the banana which presents the most advantages, and 

 best lends itself to an extensive culture. 



" The Mac_a banana, or Massao, is a magnificent plant, 

 with a height of thirteen to nineteen feet, and with leaves 

 from nine to thirteen feet in length. It goes without saying 

 that for this plant to attain all its development and for it 

 to produce fine bunches, it is necessary that the Massao 

 should be cultivated in soils of a high degree of fertility. 

 Much more exacting in fact than the Chinese banana, the 

 Massao does not prosper really well except in very rich 

 soils, very deep, and always cool and rnoist alluvial 

 valleys ; it does not fear even, but quite the contrary, the 

 soils of those valleys which are liable to be flooded from 

 time to time after great rains. On high grounds and in 

 dry and shallow soils this banana vegetates slowly and 

 only produces bunches of no value, rapidly perishing ; 

 but it produces fine and excellent fruits, and its duration, 

 so to speak, is indefinite when it is planted in a soil which 

 is favourable to it. The vegetation of the Massao is so 

 vigorous that it quickly grows above the surrounding 

 plants ; thus the hoeings are not long in becoming useless. 

 But it is always indispensable to carefully destroy the 

 greater part of the suckers produced by the parent stock, 

 and sometimes more than sixty may be counted. These 

 suckers are to be removed in proportion as they appear, 

 and in sparing always a certain number, six or eight in 



