275 
On aktip the diiras all the men were rowed ac j 
they returned in the evening with a great quantity of bananas, whic 
were greedily ERE en were ser l ns 
ed 
each; they were not, however, very large or eere tah I disposed 
of 20 at one sitting without a any "prominent ill-e 
In Mr. s Report on the Island of St. “Helena min s the 
following note is ven on fruit-bearing Musas: “ The banana is grown 
ind th 
feet ay it would grow well under shelter of a wall or side of a 
house, and under these circumstances it would be more satisfactory 
to m than the taller kinds,’ 
The M tea d as “a highly eiat vegetable rather dune 
a fruit appears to be absent from St. Hele Àt least no plants 
came under dy gto e. Suckers might be ‘obtained from the West 
Coast of Africa. It would require shelter, and a moist and somewhat 
rich soil. The latter conditions are easily attained in Jamestown, at 
least by irrigation.” 
For general notes on the cultivation of the banana and plantain in the 
West Indies abus might usefully be made to Dr. Nicholls’ Tropical 
Agriculture (London : Macmillan, 1892), pp. 159-165. It is interesting 
to note that on the authority of Ovideo bananas were introdu 
Father Thomas of Berlangas from the Canaries into San Domingo in 
o whence they were E es into the other islands and the 
ainland of tro ropical Americ 
Er (Barbados, p. is gave,so long ago as iine a very clear 
unt of the cultivation of the plantain in that island 
* Before the mother tree decays two or three MES suckers or young 
trees grow up from the root, The largest of these, in about a tw uem 
month's time, fae such another bunch of plantains as bovi described 
and as this likewise dies, after it hath produced fruit, there springs frou 
the root fresh youn shoots $ ; so that there is an Hina succession of 
trees without any trouble to bd planter. Howev Vat st is thought the 
ennd k? "s deep, 14 broad, and 12 feet asunder. "These being well 
man arge roots of superfluous plantain trees are cut through in two 
or Mis d ; one of these is put in every hole, slightly covering it 
with earth, in a short time it z up. pE way o 
in 
ber are to be found growing Puit the roots of old ien pm trees, 
and cutting off the of these within 3 feet to the root, and so 
transplant them into we Lesen for that purpose 
Jamaica.—A ccordin the Jamaica Handbook, 1881, pp. 181-182, 
bananas do well under drigailón near Spanish Town. The cost of 
hundred, planting, cleaning eight times in the e year. and a xpenses 
up to the end of the first year was estimated at about 107. per acre. 
'The yield of marketable bunches was 25 per cent. less than the number 
of suckers planted. **No returns should be eàn fee for the first 
