NARRATIVE OF AN 



fpread like an umbrella, about twelve or fourteen in num- 

 ber, fo as to cover the talleft perfon. They are of a 

 fhining fea-green till they fade, and hang down in tatters, 

 as their places are fupplied by the young ones. From the 

 centre of all this there grows a ftrong ftalk, about three 

 feet long, and bending downwards by the weight of a 

 purple fpatha, fomething like a calf's heart; and on this 

 ftalk grows the fruit called plantains, in the fliape of 

 cucumbers, and above one hundred in number, which is 

 ufually called a bunch. Each tree, or plant, bears but one 

 of thefe bunches at a time. When it is cut down, it is 

 ipeedily fupplied by the young fhoots, which fpring 

 from its bulbous root, and which in the fpace of ten 

 months time are ready to undergo the fame operation. 

 It requires a rich nouriQiing foil to make it profper, with- 

 out which it never arrives at proper maturity. This fruit 

 being divefted of its tegument when green, has in the in- 

 fide a pale yellow farinaceous fubftance, and fupplies 

 (as I have Jilready intimated) the want of bread, when 

 either boiled or roafted : it has an agreeable tafte, and is 

 very wholefom^; when the fliell becomes yellow the in- 

 fide is foft, and then may be eaten raw, having much the 

 tafte of a very ripe pear ; but when arrived at that degree 

 of maturity it is only ufed by way of delTert. 



Another fpecies refembling this, is the bauana, which 

 only differs from the plantain, in its fruit being lefs, and 

 more oval, and thi^ fpecies is never eaten till it is yellow 

 and fully ripe. The former is moft ufeful in point of 



food; 



