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PLANTAINS (Musa parasidiaca)—Long, large fruits. The 
Dacca plantain is about nine inches Jong, the Madagascar plantain 
as large as a man’s forearm; while it is reported that in the Philip- 
pines a couple of fruit of plantains are a load for a man. The trees 
are 15ft. to 18ft. high. The fruit is cut before maturity, when rich 
in starch, and cooked or allowed to ripen, and eaten when, sweet. 
BraHMINE Banana (IM. Sapientum) is small. A native of 
India; its cultivation has spread all over the semi-tropical wor!d. 
The tree is tall, reaching 18ft. in height; should he planted in well 
sheltered and warm spots. The frujt, eaten when sweet and ripe, 
is of the best. 
To this group belong the varieties known in Queensland as the 
Sugar Banana and Lady’s Finger Banana. These kinds are not 
grown commercially in Fiji as they do not carry well. 
Tue Gros MicHEL, a West Indies kind, is the favourite Fiji 
Banana. It has been introduced to Northern Queensland, but ex- 
periments in New South Wales and in Southern Queensland have 
not been satisfactory. The rainfall is not sufficient; the Gros Michel 
can, it is said, do with up to 200 inches of rain annually, or its equiv- 
alent in irrigation water on well-drained soil. The difficulty of pro- 
curing healthy suckers would retard its expansion as disease is 
rife in Fiji, and Jamaica is not free from it. It is a much better 
carrier than the Cavendish, having a thicker and tougher rind. When 
ripe it keeps its colour longer and many consider its colour better 
than the Cavendish. This kind, like the Cavendish, is reeommended 
as being the best shipping banana. 
CHINESE Banana (IM, Sinensis or Cavendishit) is a compara- 
tive dwarf species, and a squatter plant, with large, long leaves, and 
attaining a height of six to nine feet. It produces excellent fruit, 
stands high winds better than the preceding; is altogether more 
hardy and stands a greater amount of cold weather. The tree bears 
early most excellent fruit. 
BREADFRUIT (Artocarpus incisa). 
The botanical name is derived from the word artos, bread, and 
carpus, a fruit, and the generic name incisa in contradistinction to 
the genus integrifolia, or entire leaved, which applies to the Jack- 
fruit. 
This plant is distinctly tropical, and requires for growing and 
bearing a deep moist soil, well sheltered in a uniformly warm clim- 
ate. A handsome evergreen tree, 20 to 30 feet high, it has its native 
habitat in the islands of the Pacifie and the Malay Archipelago, 
whence it has been introduced into Mauritius and Madagascar, where 
it thrives well. Such glowing accounts were given of this fruit by 
the early navigators, that steps were taken to introduce it into the 
