190 BANANA. 



ment of the inhabitants of most of the countries between the tropics, 

 where its cultivation is as important as that of the cereals and fari- 

 naceous roots in the temperate zone. The ease with which it is cul- 

 tivated, the small space of ground it occupies, the certainty, the 

 abundance, and the continuance of its produce, the diversity of food 

 it yields according to the degree of maturity, make the banana an 

 object of admiration to the European traveller. In climates where 

 man scarcely feels the necessity of clothing himself, or of raising a 

 shed for his protection, he is seen gathering almost without labor 

 supplies of food as abundant as they are wholesome and varied from 

 the banana-tree. It is the banana which has given rise to that prov- 

 erb so consoling and so true, which is frequently heard between the 

 tropics, viz. " No one dies of hunger in America;" he who is hun- 

 gry will be welcomed and fed in the very poorest cabin. Botanists 

 distinguish three principal- varieties of the banana: 1st. the Musa 

 paradisica; 2d. the Musa sapientium ; 3d. the Musa regia. 



The American origin of the banana has been called in question. 

 Oviedo in his natural history of the Indies affirms that it was brought 

 from the Canary Isles to St. Domingo by a monk. Foster adopted 

 this opinion, which is corroborated, says M. de Humboldt, by the 

 complete silence of the first travellers who visited the New World 

 in regard to it. Nevertheless, the testimony of the Inca Garcilasso de 

 la Vega proves obviously that the banana flourished in America be- 

 fore the arrival of the Spaniards ; in his royal commentaries he 

 speaks of the banana as constituting the chief food of the Indians in 

 the warmest parts of Peru. 



The banana is everywhere cultivated in the neighborhood of the 

 equator, in situations at no great height above the level of the sea. 

 The cultivation is most profitable, the crop is most abundant, and at- 

 tains maturity in the shortest space of time in low lying districts 

 where the mean temperature is from 24° to 27.5° C, (75.5° to 82* 

 F.) Some estimate may be formed of this from the low price of the 

 banana in such districts ; upon the borders of the great river de la 

 Magdalena, I gave one franc or about lOd. for about 220 lbs. weight 

 of the fruit. The day's wages of a man being generally about Is. 8d., 

 it is beyond all doubt the cheapest food that can be had in the world. 



In looking at the cultivation of the banana at different heights in 

 the equatorial Cordilleras, I arrived at the following conclusions : 



Temperature 28° C. (between 82° and 83° F.) the cultivation ex- 

 tremely advantageous ; at 24° C. (between 75° and 76° F.) the cul- 

 tivation advantageous ; at 22° (71° and 72° F.) the cultivation mid- 

 dling ; at 19° C. (or between 66° and 67° F.) the cultivation disad- 

 vantageous. 



The banana is propagated by means of suckers or offsets. It re- 

 quires a rich and humid but well-drained soil, the plantation^ being 

 arranged a little before the setimg m ot the rains. The earth is 

 freed from weeds, and dug either entirely or more generally only at 

 regular distances here and there, where it is proposed to set the new 

 plant, a space of 6 feet at least being left between each. The plant 

 lbr9W8 up several shoots, generally 6 or 7, each of which will be dji- 



I 



