cultivating in England. By Mr. John Lindley. 83 



nearly all of them, or at least to the East and West Indies. 

 I mean the Plantain, or Banana, the Tamarind, and the 

 Guava. 



The Plantain or Banana, with which as a tree no one can 

 be unacquainted, is the principal fruit consumed by the 

 inhabitants of the Torrid Zone ; and from its nutritious qua- 

 lities, and general use, may, whether used in a raw or 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 24 cen- 

 tigrade degrees (75° Fahrenheit), the Banana is one of 

 the most interesting objects of cultivation for the subsistence 

 of man. The fruit is produced from amongst the immense 

 leaves in bunches weighing 30, 60 and 80 \bs.,f of the richest 

 hues, and of the greatest 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 produce. Some sorts are said always to be 

 of a bright green colour.! 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 prepa- 

 ration. The greater number, however, are used in their 

 raw state, and some varieties acquire by cultivation a very 



* Crawfurd's History of the Indian Archipelago, Vol. i. page 410. 

 \ Tussac Flore des Antilles, page 60. 



|| Rumphii Herbarium Amboinense, Vol. v. page 132, Pisang Batu; and 

 Rheedii Hortus Malabaricus, Vol. i. page 20, Cinga-Bdla. 



