CENTRAL AMERICA AND UNITED STATES 243 



regular service of steamers engaged in this trade between 

 Front era and Galveston, Texas. All the bananas im- 

 ported into Galveston are from Mexico ; in 1909 they were 

 of the value of 5579, and in 1910 of the value of 10,584. 



The number of bunches exported in 1911 was estimated 

 at 750,000. 



UNITED STATES. In the United States, according to 

 E. N. Reasoner,* there is little commercial cultivation of 

 bananas, since the frostless zone is narrow and the fruit 

 can be grown so much more cheaply in Central America 

 and the West Indies. Small banana plantations are 

 common in Southern Florida, however, and even as far 

 north as Jacksonville. They are also grown in extreme 

 Southern Louisiana, and south-westward to the Pacific 

 coast. The plants will endure a slight frost without injury. 

 A frost of 5 or 6 will kill the leaves, but if the plants are 

 nearly full grown at the time, new foliage may appear and 

 fruit may form. If the entire top is killed, new suckers 

 will spring up and bear fruit the following year. 



" In the Gulf States, just outside the tropics, the 

 banana," according to the Kew Bulletin, " is often grown, 

 although fruit is not expected more than once in four or 

 five years. It is met with in the open air (in sheltered 

 gardens), from Southern Texas to South Carolina. In 

 Florida its culture for profit is not carried on farther north 

 than Putnam county, and even in parts of South Florida 

 there are few large patches, though nearly every one has 

 a few plants. The fruit is generally inferior in quality, 

 as compared with tropical fruit. Often, as in the severe 

 frost of 1886, all the banana plants in Florida are killed to 

 the ground. In the exceptionally mild climate of California 

 in N. lat. 34 (corresponding to that of Cyprus) bananas 

 have ripened in the open air, as, for instance, at Tustin in 

 Los Angeles county. The principal Musa grown in 

 California is the ornamental Abyssinian banana (M. 

 Ensete). This has produced seed from which plants are 

 now growing in many parts of the State." 



* In " Cyclopedia of American Horticulture.' 



