August i, 1891] 



THE HUMMING BIRD. 



59 



The Plaintain or Banana Plant. 



By A. Boucard. 



The Plantain or Banana plant belongs to the family 

 of the Musaceae. It is found in all tropical coun- 

 tries, and there are many species known, and 

 probably more will be discovered in Central Africa, 

 New Guinea and adjacent Islands. 



These plants have scarcely any aerial stem but 

 have shoots from subterraneous root stocks from which 

 emerge stems composed of sheathing leaf-stalks. The 

 leaves are flat and traversed throughout by a thick 

 median rib with simple veins running directly towards 

 it from the margin. The general aspect of the plant 

 is somewhat like a Palm-tree. 



The Genus Musa is the type of the family. 



The largest species is known under the name of 

 Musa sapientum. It has a fruit, which sometimes 

 grows to the length of 12 inches. Each plant pro- 

 duces a bunch containing from twenty to 'fifty fruits, 

 closely grouped together. It weighs from 25 to 50 

 pounds and sometimes more. In Central and South 

 America, natives have no other food. They eat them 

 green or ripe ; green they boil them and are a good 

 substitute for b-ead, being very farinaceous. When 

 half ripe they roast them and make a delicious entre- 

 mets. Ripe they are exquisite raw and also made 

 into sweetmeats. 



During my sojourn in Mexico and Central America, 

 I have eaten these fruits raw and cooked in many 

 ways, and I have always found them nice and whole- 

 some. In fact, I have never got tired of them although 

 sometimes taken in excess. I really don't know how 

 the lazy natives of the tropical countries would live 

 without them. The plant bears flowers and fruit only 

 once ; but it constantly reproduces new shoots from 

 the subterraneous root stocks, so that once planted, 

 they require very little care to keep in order and are 

 always increasing in number. A few hundred plants 

 are quite sufficient to sustain a whole family. It bears 

 flowers and fruit all the year. In a medium size planta- 

 tion, there are always plants with flowers and bunches 

 of fruits in all stages of development. 



Another very common species is Musa paradis iaica, 

 so called from an allusion to an old notion of being 

 the forbidden fruit of Scripture. 



The fruits of this species are rather small, only 

 about 3 inches long. They are always eaten ripe, 

 fried or preserved. 



In Central aud South America they grow also some 

 other species ; such as the Guinea Plantain, probably 

 imported from Africa. It is a small species, delicious 

 to eat crude, when quite ripe. 



Each bunch contains from 100 to 200 fruits. 



The Manilla plantain, probably Musa textilis from 

 Manilla (Philippines), is also another species- largely 

 cultivated. 



The fruit is internally of a rosy colour, in size it 

 stands between the fruit of Musa paradisiaica and 

 Musa sapientium. It is eaten crude, boiled, fried or 

 in preserves. All sorts of animals and especially 

 insects, such as Lepidoptera and Coleoptera, are very 

 fond of the ripe fruits, fresh or rotten. Many times I 

 have caught fine species of butterflies and beetles 

 when feeding on them. 



Since a few years a large trade of plantain 

 fruits is going on between Mexico, Central and South 

 America and the United States, where these fruits are 

 in great demand, and all shipments are immediately 

 sold at about half-penny a piece wholesale. Some 

 are also sent to Europe ; but as far as I can make it 

 out, they are cut too green and they don't ripe well. 

 They are not to be compared with the fruits eaten 

 in their growing places. Besides they are rather ex- 

 pensive ; but I have not the least doubt that before 

 long, they will find way to forward some to 

 Europe, so, as to arrive in fine condition, and sold at 

 a moderate price, and a great trade of that fruit will be 

 established between Europe and the tropical countries 

 of the World. 



An intoxicating liquor is made with the fruit. It is 

 rather pleasant and has a very distinct taste of all the 

 liquors we know. 



Very likely, a very good sugar could also be made 

 with it. 



The leaves are employed by the natives for the 

 thatch of their houses. 



Besides a tough fibre, capable of being made into 

 thread is extracted from the stems, and lately it has 

 been discovered that a very good printing paper of 

 the finest quality, can be made from them, at a very 

 cheap rate. 



The supply of this new material being illimited, 

 very likely it will affect greatly the price of the paper. 



Therefore we have here a plant of the greatest 

 utility easy to grow, whose products will sell more 

 and more every day, and I can predict to those who 

 will undertake the cultivation of that plant that they 

 are sure to reap a good and profitable harvest. 



A.B. 



A Visit to the British Museum. 

 Natural History Department. 



Continued from page 55. 



The Central Hall. 



In the centre of the entrance hall is placed the 

 skeleton of one of the most colossal of animals, the 

 Cachalot or Sperm-whale {Physeter macrocephalus) pre- 

 pared from an animal cast ashore near Thurso, on 

 the north of Scotland, in July, 1863, on the estate of 

 Capt D. Macdonald, by whom it was presented to the 

 Museum. It measures fifty feet in length. 



One group, in a case, placed at present near the 



