118 ON THE BANANA AND PLANTAIN. 



ing in a cask the fruit in baskets, where they liquefy, and their juice 

 flows into the casks and soon becomes vinegar. No water is added. 



Bananas baked in their skin, then peeled and boiled in water, are 

 very good for coughs and inflammation of the lungs. The Malays use a 

 variety of this fruit, which possesses considerable tonic properties, to 

 arrest diarrhoea. The bananas are generally very astringent when half 

 ripe and eaten raw, on account of the gallic acid they contain. In the 

 Antilles they obtain from the ashes of the plant burnt in a dry state 

 large quantities of potash, which they use to wash linen. 



"We will now glance at some of the uses of the stalk. The stem is 

 filled with an abundant pith, enveloped in fibrous cases, and containing 

 much starch. This boiled might serve as human food ; animals like 

 it very much. Cattle, and especially the pig, relish this kind of sus- . 

 tenance. 



A curious fact connected with the banana plant is that the sap is so 

 abundant that it escapes whenever an incision is made into the outer coat- 

 ing. The sap has been examined and analysed by Fourcroy, Vanquelin, 

 and Boussingault. According to the last writer it contains tannin, gallic 

 acid, acetic acid, chloride of sodium, salts of lime, potass, and aluminum. 

 If cotton, linen, or flax are dipped into it whilst perfectly fresh, it de- 

 posits a colouring matter of a yellowish grey, which adheres to the fibre. 

 When exposed to the air it becomes agitated, and precipitates floccules of 

 a dirty rose colour. This phenomenon is produced by the oxygen con- 

 tained in the atmosphere. The banana plant is used in Anam, or 

 Cochin China, and the Philippines, in the process of refining sugar. 

 Masses of raw sugar are placed in layers one inch thick and ten wide, 

 which are covered by a layer of stalk of this plant, cut into small pieces. 

 According to Grosie, however, it is the ashes of the Musa paradisiaca, 

 which they use in this process. The aqueous liquor that flows from these 

 stalks filtrates through the sugar, carrying away with it all impurities, 

 and leaving the sugar in a crystallized state. This sap is also of great 

 value as a mordant in dyeing ; the Malays by means of it fix the green 

 colour of the Dolichos lablab. When employed alone, the sap of the 

 cochon banana communicates to fabrics a purple tint, which is durable. 

 The sap has also medicinal properties. It is used in St. Domingo to stop 

 internal and external haemorrhage, like tannin is in other countries ; 

 and at the Philippines, to heal a species of venereal disease very common 

 in the province of Bisayas. 



We now come to consider those properties of the banana plant which 

 are especially interesting at the present day, and to notice the textile 

 purposes its stalk is applicable to. The species considered the best for 

 such purposes is the abaca of the Philippines. There is some dispute as 

 to the scientific name of the variety of the Musa from which the so- 

 called " Manila hemp" of the English, and the "abaca" of the Portu- 

 guese and Spaniards, is procured. Some name it the Musa sylvestris, 

 some Musa troglodytarum tcxtoria, and others Musa textilis and Musa 



