320 



THE PLAIfTAIIf AKD BAXAFA, 



them being imperfect and consequently unproductive of seed. 

 An individual may, even from excess of culture, moisture, &c., be 

 entirely incapable of flowering. During the prevalence of a 

 disease or blight among the plantain walks of Demerara in the 

 years 18ii and 1845, it was seriously proposed to introduce male 

 plantains, or obtain fresh stock by seed. 



It is, therefore, necessary to determine with exactness, if pos- 

 sible, whether the Plantain or Banana, (whichever be the parent 

 stock) exists anywhere at present, or has been known to have 

 existed as a perfect plant, that is bearing fertile seeds ; or, whether 

 it has always existed in the imperfect state, that is, incapable of 

 being procreated by seed, the only state in which it at present 

 exists in our colonies. 



Whether LinuaBus be right in his conjecture (Spec. Plant, 1763) 

 that the " Bihai " {Jleliconia himilis), a native of Caraccas, which 

 produces fertile seeds, is the stock plant of the plantain, it is 

 almost impossible to ascertain; but the absence of any description 

 of a wild seed-bearing plantain, renders it highly probable that 

 the cultivated species are hybrids produced long ago. The banana, 

 from time immemorial, has been the food of the philosophers and 

 sages of the East, and almost all travellers throughout the tropics 

 have described these plants exactly as they are known to us, 

 either as sweet fruit eaten raw, or a farinaceous vegetable roasted 

 or boiled. It is remarkable that the plantain and banana shoid-d 

 be indigenous, or at all events cultivated for ages both in the Old 

 and JSTew World. Numerous South American travellers describe 

 some one of these plants as being indigenous articles of food 

 among the natives, thus showing (if the plantain and its varieties 

 be hybrids) a communication between the tropics of America, 

 Asia and Africa, long before the time of Columbus. The older 

 writers on the colony of Gruiana, as Hartsinck, Bellin and others, 

 consider the plantain to be a native. It is remarkable that Sir 

 R. Schomburgk, during his travels, found a large species of edible 

 plantain far in the interior. It appears, therefore, from all the in- 

 vestigations that have been made, that the plantain is either a 

 hybrid, or its power of production from seed has been destroyed 

 long ago by cultivation, and that it is not known to exist any- 

 where in a perfect state ; in which case any attempt to improve 

 the present stock by the introduction of suckers from elsewhere, 

 must be totally futile. Mr. A. Qarnett recommends the following 

 system of cultivation, as calculated to prevent the blight. The 

 walk or plantation is to be formed into beds 36 feet wide, divided 

 by open drains 30 inches deep. Two rows of plantains to be 

 planted upon each bed at 18 feet distance, both between and 

 along the rows, to afford a clear ventilation to the enlarging 

 plants, and so soon as the plantation has been established, the 

 space of land between each row to be shovel-ploughed 12 inches 

 deep ; the same to be repeated annually, and upon the interspace 

 may be planted maize, yams, sugar cane, or eddoes, and the whole 

 kept clear at all times. Thus, with the conjoined principles of 



