46 



upon the cultivation and selection of the fruit, and when this has been 

 done the banana disease {Kew Bulletin, 1890, p. 272, and 1892, p. -48) 

 has not made much headway. 



In the year 1891 two Wardian cases of the Jamaica banana, the fruit 

 of which is so largely exported in the United States, were received at 

 Kew from the Botanical Department, Jamaica. These were forwarded 

 at the request of the Governor, Sir John Thurston, K.O.M.G., who was 

 desirous of adding this sort to those already under cultivation in the 

 Colony. After being cared for and repacked at Kew, they were 

 sent to the Botanic Station at Suva by way of Sydney. Many of 

 the plants survived the long voyages to Fiji, and in May 1892 they were 

 reported as " growing apace." 



Burton {Gent. Africa, ii., p. 58) says : — 



" The Mdizi or plantain- tree is apparently an aborigine of these 

 latitudes ; in certain parts, as in Usumbara, Karagwah, and Uganda, 

 it is the staff of life. A single bunch forms a load for a man. It is 

 found in the island and on the coast of Zanibar, at K'hutu in the head 

 of the alluvial valley, and, though rarely, in the mountains of Usagara. 

 The best fruit is that grown by the Arabs at Unyanyembe ; it is still a 

 poor specimen, coarse and insipid, stringy and full of seeds, and strangers 

 rarely indulge in it." 



Speke says the plantain or " N'deezee " is the food of the countries 

 one degree on either side of the equator, acres of ground being covered 

 with its groves. On the high lands of the interior it ceases to grow at 

 2° N. lat. 



Amongst the Monbutto, west of Uganda, Schweinfurth {Heart of 

 Africa, ii., 87) remarks : — 



" The growth of their plantain {Musa sapientum) gives them very 

 little trouble ; the young shoots are stuck in the ground after it has been 

 slackened by the rain, the old plants are suffered to die down just 

 as they are ; and this is all the cultivation that is vouchsafed. In 

 the propagation of these plantains, however, the Monbutto have a 

 certain knack of discrimination for which they might be envied by any 

 European gardener ; they can judge whether a young shoot is capable 

 of bearing fruit or not, and this gives them an immense advantage in 

 selecting only such shoots as are worth the trouble of planting." 



More recently beyond Yambuya, in the heart of the great tropical 

 forest, Mr. Stanley {Darkest Africa, i., p. 252) found " a clearing three 

 miles in diameter abounding in native produce and hitherto unvisited 

 by the Manyuema. Almost every plantain stalk bore an enormous 

 bunch of fruit, with from 50 to 140 plantains attached. Some speci- 

 mens of this fruit were 22 inches long." 



Also at Indeman (vol. ii., p. 55) : " The plantain groves were extensive 

 and laden with fruit, and especially with ripe mellow plantains whose 

 fragrance was delicious." 



And in approaching Adanta and Andikumu "in half-an-hour the main 

 body of the caravan filed in, to find such a store of abnormally large 

 plantains that the ravenous men were in ecstasies." 



While at Ngoti above Urigi (vol. ii., p. 383) : "A fine bunch of 

 bananas could be purchased for 10 cowries, and as 8 cowries consti- 

 tuted a day's ration allowance, no one could possibly complain of 

 insufficient food." 



Dr. Parke speaks of " grim starvation " and " grim despair " which 

 overtook the expedition {Equatorial Africa, p. 113), and rejoices at 

 last in the " great luck " which brought it within reach of the generous 



