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410 ' - DIRECTIONS FOR COLLECTING 
old leaves are full of a watery acrid juice, which stains white 
cloth an indelible black or dark brown. ‘The fibres of the 
leaves make a textile fabric of great beauty, known as a fine 
kind of grass cloth. 
In cultivation the plants are set closely, the Chinese banana 
requiring only three or four feet between the rows, and the 
clusters are gathered before they are quite ripe, and hung up 
in some cool place, or better still, buried in the earth. Some 
bananas are certainly improved by this premature gathering, 
but others are much better when ripened in the natural way. 
The prices on the Isthmus of Panama, and at most tropical 
ports, varies from a real (124 cts.) to a dollar, according to 
the size of a bunch and the season of the year. The prices 
asked in the Boston market are simply outrageous, and our 
fruit-dealers let the fruit rot in their windows rather than 
lower the price. 
A plantation will yield all the year round. by timing the 
planting, but the crop is much more abundant at one season. 
The care the plants require is little enough if they are 
planted by a brook or in moist ground, and the bunches of 
_ fruit may weigh eighty, or even more than a hundred pounds 
when ripe. 
The geographical limits of the banana are much m 
tensive than those of the cocoanut, and extend even 
the tropics. ‘ 
ore ex- 
beyond 

——— 
DIRECTIONS FOR COLLECTING LAND AND 
FRESH-WATER SHELLS. 
BY JAMES LEWIS, M. D. 
Ir the collector is provided with suitable apparatus fF 
gathering certain classes of shells, his work is Mor? 5 
half done when he has found them. This is capone 
of land shells. The apparatus needed for these is simp 3 

