APPENDIX. 39 



palmaceous tribe, for no other reafon but a kind of fi- 

 milarity in producing the fruit on an excrefcence or llalk 

 growing from the heart of the flem ; but ftill the mu=a is 

 neither woody nor perennial ; it bears fruit but once, and 

 in all thefe refpects it differs from trees of the palmaceous 

 kind, and indeed from all fort of trees whatever. The En- 

 fete, on the contrary, has no naked Item, no part of it is 

 woody ; the body of it, for feveral feet high, is efculent ; 

 but no part of the banana can be eaten. As foon as the 

 ftalk of the Enfete appears perfect and full of leaves, the 

 body of the plant turns hard and fibrous, and is no longer 

 eatable ; before, it is the bell of all vegetables ; when boil- 

 ed, it has the tafte of the belt new wheat-bread not perfect- 

 ly baked. 



The drawing which I have given the reader was of an 

 Enfete ten years old. It was then very beautiful, and had no 

 marks of decay. As for the pifhl, {lamina, and ovarium) 

 they are drawn with fuch attention, and fo clearly expref- 

 fed by the pencil, that it would be loll time to fay more a- 

 bout them. I have given one figure of the plant cloathed 

 with leave?, and another of the Hem ftript of them, that 

 the curious may have an opportunity of further mvefliga- 

 ting the difference between this and the mufa. 



When, you make ufe of the Enfete for eating, you cut- 

 it immediately above the fmall detached roots, and perhaps 

 a foot or two higher, as the plant is of age. You ftrip the 

 green from the upper part till it becomes white ; when 

 ibft, like a turnip well boiled, if eat with milk or butter it 

 is the bed of all. food, wholefome, nouriihing, and eafily 

 digeited. 



