PRESERVED PLANTAINS FROM MEXICO. 71 
meal was sent to the Exhibition of 1851, from Madras, as 
well as baked Plantains from Jessore, by the Rev. J. Parry. 
These, after some years, are still in good preservation and 
well tasted. The late Dr. Stocks' informed the author that 
the Plantains at Bassein, where the cultivation is most exten- 
sive, are delicious in flavour, and that there the people had 
acquired the art of preserving them. But this was practised 
many years ago in Central India, and in Ceylon in 1840. 
The late Sir John Robison, Secretary of the Royal Society 
of Edinburgh, wrote to the author some years since: “‘ Among 
the products of India which, I think, might be easily brought 
into general sale in this country, are some of the fruits, which, 
if cut in slices and dried in the sun, would become susceptible 
of transport, as those of the Levant and the South of France. 
Above all,the Banana, of which the varieties, which are rich 
in saccharine matter, make an admirable preserve, on being 
skinned and split longitudinally and dried in the sun, by 
which process they immediately acquire a consistence like 
Turkey figs, and become capable of being packed and pre- 
served in the same way.” He concludes by stating: “I was 
in the habit of having large quantities preserved every year in 
this way at Hyderabad, and of using them as an article of 
dessert at table.” 
In treating of the cultivation of species of Musa or Plan- 
tain in India for fibre, it is desirable to advert to the 
cultivation of the edible species, or the numerous varieties in- 
cluded under the names of Banana and of Plantain, and sug- 
gesting them as above as subjects of experiment to members 
of the Agricultural Societies in India, to ascertain whether the 
modes of cultivation adopted in India have attained the highest 
limits of productiveness ; and also whether the fruit might not 
be preserved in different forms. The author has already observed 
that a remarkable instance of the great length of time for which 
these Plantains may be preserved in an eatable state, occurred 
at the Exhibition of 1851. These were some preserved Plan- 
tains, “ Platano pasado,” which had been brought home by 
1 While this sheet is going to press, the author has heard, with deep regret, of the 
loss which Science and the East India Service have sustained, in the death of this 
accomplished naturalist, who was as remarkable for the variety of his attainments, as 
for his zeal for botanical science and its application to practical purposes. 
