THE AGRICULTURAL JOURNAL. 



659 



The Banana. 



THE above represents a banana plant at 

 the stage of developing fruit. The 

 photograph was taken at Mr. Vincent 

 Symmon's fruit farm, Malvern, Although 

 the farm is much sheltered from winds 

 naturally and artifically, this was the best 

 specimen that could be found. The leaves 

 of the plant, for beauty's sake, are unfor- 

 tunately most easily tearable. For practi- 

 cal information as to cultivation, see 

 No. 3, Vol. IV., etc. The following scien- 

 tific description is taken from the Ency- 

 clopcedia Britannica. Banana {Musa 

 sapientum) a gigantic herbaceous plant 



belonging to the natural order Musacece, 

 originally a native of the tropical parts of 

 the East, but now cultivated in all tropical 

 and sub-tropical climates. It forms a 

 spurious kind of stem, rising 15 or 20 feet 

 by the sheathing bases of the leaves, the 

 blades of which sometimes measure as 

 much as ten feet in length by two feet 

 across. The stem bears several clusters 

 of fruit, which somewhat resemble 

 cucumbers in size and form ; it dies down 

 after maturing the fruit. The weight of 

 the produce of a single cluster is some- 

 times as much as 801b., and it was calcu- 



