BANANA. 



309 



dressed form, be regarded rather as a necessary 

 article of food than as an occasional luxury. In 

 equinoctial Asia and America, in tropical Africa, 

 in the islands of the Atlantic and Pacific Ocean, 

 wherever the mean heat of the year exceeds 

 75° R, the Banana is one of the most interest- 

 ing objects of cultivation for the subsistence of 

 man. The fruit is produced from amongst the 

 immense leaves in bunches weighing 

 30, 60, and 80 lbs., of the richest 

 hues and of great diversity of form. 

 It usually is long and narrow, of a 

 pale-yellow or dark-red colour, with 

 a yellow farinaceous flesh. But in 

 form it varies to oblong, and nearly 

 spherical; and in colour it offers 

 all the shades and variations of tints 

 that the combination of yellow and 

 red in different proportions can pro- 

 duce. Some sorts are said to be of 

 a bright-green colour when ripe. In 

 general, the character of the fruit 

 to an European palate is that of mild 

 insipidity; some sorts are even so 

 coarse as not to be edible without 

 preparation. The greater number, 

 however, are used in their raw state, 

 and some varieties acquire by cul- 

 tivation a very exquisite flavour, 

 some of them surpassing the finest 

 Pears. In the better sorts the flesh is no 

 harder than butter is in winter, and has much 

 the colour of the finest yellow butter. It is of 

 a delicate taste, and melts in the mouth like 

 marmalade. To point out all the kinds that 

 are cultivated in the East Indies alone would 

 be as difficult as to describe the varieties of 

 Apples and Pears in Europe; for the names 

 vary according to the size, form, taste, and 

 colour of the fruits." (Lindley.) 



There are now large plantations of Bananas 

 in tropical countries to supply fruit to other 

 regions. Many tons of the fruit are an- 

 nually imported into England from the West 

 Indies, Canary Islands, &c. The bunches are 

 cut whilst the fruits are green, for convenience 

 of transit. Provided they are mature before 

 being cut, they ripen with full flavour; but 

 many of the fruits one sees in the greengrocers' 

 shops have been cut much too early to be palat- 

 able, even when yellow and apparently ripe. 



A good Banana is one of the most enjoyable 

 of fruits. A selection of the best varieties is 

 cultivated in the Palm-house at Kew. They 

 are planted in large tubs or boxes, or in borders 

 of rich soil. Suckers about 6 feet high, when 



planted singly, fruit in from two to three years. 

 The bunches of fruits are cut as soon as the 

 fruit shows signs of changing colour, and are 

 hung in a warm room to ripen. They are ripe 

 and fit to eat when they are fairly soft and 

 their colour is wholly yellow or russet. The 

 fruits are better when cut and ripened in this 

 manner than when they are left on the plant to 



Fig. 1091.— Leaves and Fruit of the Banana {Musa sapientum). 



ripen. As soon as the bunch is cut (only one 

 bunch is produced on a stem, never a second 

 one), the stem is cut off level with the ground, 

 and a sucker, of which there are generally 

 several in various stages of growth, is selected 

 to take its place, the others being removed. 



Travellers who have tasted some of the best 

 of the Kew-grown Bananas say they are superior 

 in flavour to what are obtainable in the tropics. 



These Kew varieties are mostly forms of 

 Musa sapientum (fig. 1091), of which there are a 

 great many forms, all of them seedless. They 

 vary in size from about 9 inches in length by 

 3 inches in diameter to that of a man's thumb. 

 Some are distinctly angular, whilst others are 

 smooth and regular. The skin, when ripe, is 

 either russet-red (rubra) or dark or pale yellow, 

 and the flesh resembles that of a ripe Apricot 

 in colour and mellowness, or is pale-yellow and 

 more or less mealy. 



The best varieties of those tried at Kew are 

 Champa, Pisang Medji, Pisang Raja, Earn Kela 

 (rubra), the largest-fruited of all ; Ladies' Finger, 

 Guincly, and Arracan. 



The Chinese or Dwarf Banana (Musa Caven- 

 dishU or chinensis) is said to have been intro- 



