114 ON THE BANANA AND PLANTAIN. 



hood of Armenia. The eastern parts of Portugal, whose marine and 

 equal climate is siugularly favourable to the naturalisation of tropical 

 plants, enumerate eveu the Musa sapientum among their garden produc- 

 tions. The Musa Cavendishii and Musa sinensis have also been success- 

 fully introduced into that country. Equatorial America has immense 

 resources in the banana ; Mexico, Central America, Colombia, Upper and 

 Lower Peru, Brazil, the Guianas, and the Antilles, more especially Haiti 

 and Cuba, cidtivate this plant on a vast scale. The banana exists still 

 in Louisiana, Florida, and the other Southern States, where efforts 

 have been made for some time to extend its cultivation. 



A warm and rather moist soil is best suited to the propagation of the 

 banana, that is to say, a soil in which there is a plentiful admixture of 

 clay, as in the immense valleys of America and Asia, and in the grassy 

 plains of Malaysia. It seems to like the neighbourhood of the sea, and. 

 an atmosphere impregnated with salt, for it is in that kind of situation 

 that it appears to prosper best. In Egypt it grows well in the nitrous 

 plains of Rosetta. In the majority of countries where the plantain is 

 grown no manure is necessary, owing to the decomposition of the stems 

 and the alluvial nature of the soil. But in other less favourable soils 

 manure may be requisite to maintain a vigorous and constant production. 

 A plantain walk is usually established a little before the rainy season 

 commences. The soil is loosened to a foot or less, so as to receive the 

 young plants. It is thoroughly cleansed of all weeds and stones which may 

 be there. Then shoots or suckers are taken from the parent stem, of from 

 two to three feet high, their bulbs being divided from the principal bulb 

 by means of a mattock. These slips are cut about eight inches above the 

 neck, and placed in a slanting direction in the prepared holes, and 

 covered with earth, leaving in sight only about two inches. The 

 length of time which elapses between the planting of the slips and their 

 fruiting, depends on climate, situation, and variety of species. Thus, 

 3Iusa sapientum fruits in the fifth and sixth month, whilst the Musa 

 paradisiaca requires ten months, and sometimes even a longer time 

 than that. Two varieties of the Banana fig, the B. canaya and gengi, 

 produce their fruit in five months. In mountain districts, the fruit of 

 the large banana ripens only at the end of eighteen or twenty months 

 of cultivation ; some varieties indeed, in such position, take three years 

 to produce fruit. The leaves of the banana afford a useful shelter, and 

 it is therefore of great service in tropical agriculture to young plants, 

 which would otherwise suffer severely from the excessive heat of the 

 sun. In British India and in Cuba, they use the coffee-plant, the 

 young areca palms, the cocoa-nut, and the betel pepper for this pur- 

 pose. In the West Indies and in South America, they plant rows of 

 plantain and cocoa (Theobroma~). In Java, the plantain is made a shade 

 plant for vegetables. In British Guiana, the plantains are set six yards 

 apart, and yams, maize, cocos or canes planted in the intervals. 



The cultivation of the plantain is one of the easiest to undertake 



