230 



HISTORY OP THE VEGETABLE KINGDOM. 



Plantain. 



luxuriantly, in some of tlie soutlievn oountries 

 of Europe. 



The Plantain (wma 

 paradisiacaj is of con- 

 siderable size; it rises 

 with a lierhaceous stalk, 

 about five or six inches 

 in diameter at the sur- 

 face of the ground but 

 tapering upwards to the 

 height of fifteen or 

 twenty feet. The leaves 

 are in a cluster at the 

 top; they are very large, 

 being about six feet 

 long and two feet broad: 

 the middle rib is strong, 

 but the rest of the leaf is tender, and apt to be 

 torn by the wind. The leaves grow with great 

 rapidity after the stalk has attained its proper 

 height. The spike of flowers rises from the 

 centre of the leaves to the height of about four 

 feet. At first the flowers are inclosed in a sheath, 

 but as they come to maturity, that drops off. 

 The fruit is about an inch in di-ameter, eight or 

 nine inches long, and bent a little on one side. 

 As it ripens it turns yellow; and when ripe, it is 

 filled with a pulp of a luscious sweet taste. 



The Banana {musa sapienium) yields a shorter 

 and rounder fruit than tlie plantain ; the stem 

 is also different, that of the plantain being 

 wholly green, while the banana is spotted vfith 

 jiuiple. The banana is not so luscious as the 

 plantain, but it is more agreeable. Those brought 

 to this country are gathered unripe, but upon 

 being kept for some time, acquire a rich golden 

 colour. The plant is very successfully cultivated 

 in our conservatories, and often produces the fruit 

 in perfection. The manilla plantain fibre is the 

 produce of a species named musa texlilis. The 

 finer kinds are manufactured into textile fabrics. 



Having thus observed the slight differences in 

 these plants, we shall proceed to their general 

 character — in which notice we shall confine our- 

 selves to the use of the word banana. 



The banana, unlike some others of the tribe, is 

 not confined to any particular country of the torrid 

 zone, but offers its produce indifferently to the in- 

 habitants of equinoctial Asia and America, of tro- 

 pical Africa, and of the islands of the Atlantic 

 and Pacific oceans. Wherever the mean heat of 

 the year exceeds 75° of Fahrenheit, the banana is 

 one of the most important and interesting objects 

 for the cultivation of man. All hot countries 

 appear equally to favour the growth of its fruit; 

 and it has even been cultivated in Cuba, in situ- 

 ations where the thermometer descends to 45° of 

 Fahrenheit. Its produce is enormous; the ba- 

 nana, therefore, for an immense portion of man- 

 kind, is what wheat, barley, and rye are for the 

 inhabitants of Western Asia and Europe, and 



Avhat the numerous varieties of rice are for those 

 of the countries beyond the Indus. 



The banana is not kno«Ti in an uncultivated 

 state. The wildest tribes of South America, 

 who depend upon this fruit for their subsistence, 

 propagate the plant by suckers. Yet an aU- 

 bountiful Nature is, in this case, ready to dimin- 

 ish the labours of man, perhaps too ready for 

 the proper development of his energies, both 

 physical and moral. Eight or nine months after 

 the sucker has been planted, the banana begins 

 to form its clusters; and the fruit may be collected 

 in the tenth and eleventh months. When the 

 stalk is cut, the fruit of which has ripened, a 

 sprout is put forth, which again bears fruit in 

 three months. The whole labour of cultivation 

 which is required for a plantation of bananas is 

 to cut the stalks laden with ripe fruit, and to 

 give the plants a slight nourishment, once or 

 twice a year, by digging round the roots. A spot 

 of a little more than a thousand square feet will 

 contain from thirty to forty banana plants. A 

 cluster of bananas, produced on a single plant, 

 often contains from one hundred and sixty to 

 one hundred and eighty fruits, and weighs 

 from seventy to eighty pounds. But reckoning 

 the weight of a cluster only at forty pounds, 

 such a plantation would produce more than four 

 thousand pounds of nutritive substance. M. 

 Humboldt calculates that as thirty-three pounds 

 of wheat and ninety-nine pounds of potatoes 

 require the same space as that in which four 

 thousand pounds of bananas are grown, the pro- 

 duce of bananas is consequently to that of wheat 

 as 133 : 1, and to that of potatoes as 44 : 1. 



The bananaripened in the hot-houses of Europe 

 has an insipid taste; but yet the natives of both 

 Indies, to many millions of whom it supplies 

 their principal food, eat it with avidity, and are 

 satisfied with the nourishment it affords. This 

 fi-uit is a very sugary substance; and in warm 

 countries the natives find such food not only 

 satisfying for the moment, but permanently nu- 

 tritive. Yet, weight for weight, the nutritive 

 matter of the banana cannot at all be compared 

 to that of wheat, or even of potatoes. At the 

 same time, a much greater number of individuals 

 may be supported upon the produce of a piece 

 of gi'ound planted with bananas, compared with 

 a piece of the same size, in Europe growing 

 wheat. Humboldt estimates the proportion as 

 twenty-five to one; and he illustrates the fact by 

 remarking that a European, newly arrived in the 

 torrid zone, is struck with nothing so much as 

 the extreme smallness of the spots under culti- 

 vation round a cabin which contains a numerous 

 family of Indians. 



The ripe fruit of the banana is preserved, like 

 the fig, by being dried in the sun. This dried 

 banana is an agreeable and healthy aliment. 

 Meal is extracted from the fruit, by cutting it 



