

NOTES ON TROPICAL FRUITS. 407 
on the wretched specimens of its race thrown upon our 
~ wharves. 
Tacca pinnatifida, — Arrowroot, pia. Of the many plants 
which produce the starch known as arrowroot, the tacca is 
~ the most important in the Pacific Ocean. On the Hawaiian 
Islands it grows wild, and its tuberous roots are much sought 
after. The plant is low, conspicuous only from its deeply 
cleft horizontal leaves, above which rises in the proper sea- 
Sona cluster of greenish flowers. The tubers are shaped 
like potatoes, and so far as known are never eaten raw, 
being quite acrid, although by no means so poisonous as the 
nihot. 
= Musa (various species),—Banana, Plantain. The best 
and most important of all tropical fruits, found in the tropics 
_ of every continent, and universally cherished by the people 
_ Whose meat it is. Every one would know a banana at sight, 
_ nd yet the pictures of the plant, even in our best text-books, 
"e very faulty. One of the common geographies represent 
tas bearing two bunches of fruit; another, as having a dis- 
= tinet stem. 
: When the cutting or shoot is planted (and it requires a 
-deep rich earth and much moisture to grow in perfection), it 
_ on sends up two leaves, tightly rolled together, until the 
_ Fen roll has grown some two or three feet, when the blades 
troll and become most tempting food for cattle of all sorts. 
‘hese leaves are followed by others until the stems of the 
leaves have formed a smooth trunk some eight or ten inches 
: thick, and sheathed by the drying or dried remains of the 
: earlier leaves, At the end of nine months a deep purple 
= *Ppears in the centre of the leaves, and its constantly 
lengthening stem pushes it out beyond the leafy envelopes, 
: and it hangs down heavily like a huge heart. Now along 
© stem are seen: little protuberances in rows, extending 
; Perhaps two-thirds of the way around the stem, and as the 
Seat Purple envelopes of the bud fall off, these are seen to be 
