THE ISTHMUS OF PANAMA. 05 



certain. It is said that wheat will grow well in the 

 high lands, yet few experiments have ever been tried 

 with it ; but corn is well known to produce abund- 

 antly, and with so little labor that the natives make 

 it one of their chief crops, and its easy growth re- 

 quires no better evidence of the fact. Rice grows 

 well in the low lands, but is not much cultivated. 

 Cotton and sugar-cane are sometimes to be seen in 

 the native rosas, but not often. Up the Magdalena 

 river, tobacco is produced quite extensively, and it 

 grows thrifty on the Isthmus, but it can never be of 

 good quality without a better system of cultivation 

 than it has ever had here. Coffee and cocoa are 

 both grown to some extent, and so are yams and 

 sweet potatoes ; but the natives are so indolent that 

 they seldom take the trouble to plant them. Yams 

 are brought to the Chagres market from Carthagena, 

 in considerable quantities. Plantains and bananas 

 are not only the easiest grown, but they yield the 

 greatest amount of valuable fruit of any known vege- 

 table production. The plant is very beautiful, with its 

 broad, green leaves, the roots of which clasp the stalk, 

 reaching to the ground. Each leaf, as it shoots out, 

 is a closely rolled cylinder, pointing directly up- 

 wards until it unrolls, w T hen it gracefully bends to 

 one side. The stem of the fruit is the termination 

 of the stalk, wdiich expands and finally bending over, 

 the flowers are developed in rows around it, suc- 

 ceeding each other gradually, from the base to the 

 apex, which by this time usually hangs directly 

 down ; and as the fruit is developed, it turns up and 

 4* 



