IMPEEIAL GARDENS FOR FRUIT-TREE DISSEMINATION. 307 
■ IMPEEIAL GAEDENS FOE FEUIT-TEEE DISSEMINATION 
THEOUGHOUT THE EMPIEE. 
By Dr. Bonavia, F.E.H.S. 
It is gratifying to learn that the two notable Bananas of India — or 
Plantains, as the English there call them — have been at last introduced 
into the Eoyal Gardens at Kew. 
The Bam Kcld and the Chamjxi Bananas must have been known to 
the British in India for perhaps a hundred years, and yet nobody, until 
recently, has ever thought of introducing these fine things, either into 
England, or to any of our colonies. 
I do not think there are many plants the stools of which— like 
bulbs— can be taken long distances without any special care. The 
Banana is such a plant. 
The way it is grown in Northern India is this : — 
A trench is dug, three feet deep and as many broad. The bottom of 
the trench is manured, and the bulbous roots, with their sprouts, planted 
there, four or live feet from each other. Then every year a lot of fresh 
cow-dung is thrown round the stems, until the trench is filled up in 
the course of years, when the site is changed and the same process 
repeated. The Banana requires plenty of Avater, except in rainy seasons. 
In Northern India the choicest varieties cannot be cultivated, as both 
the hot winds and the cold winter nights are unfavourable to them. 
Bombay, Madras, and Bengal are the districts that suit them. 
The comparatively inferior variety now so largely grown in the West 
Indies cannot be compared with the choicer ones of India. 
It is surprising that wealthy persons in the United Kingdom have 
never devoted a special glass-house to the cultivation of these indubitably 
fine varieties of Plantain. 
The introduction of these choice Bananas into England is a move- 
ment in the right direction. Eventually they can be disseminated 
throughout the tropical dependencies of Great Britain. 
But this is not enough. 
There is room for two or three Imperial Gardens, where some of the 
choicest fruit-trees of the w^orld could be collected, studied, and not only 
disseminated throughout the Empire, but new ones evolved by seed varia- 
tion and cross-fertilisation ; for it is idle to suppose that all these choice 
fruits were originally contained in the " Garden of Eden." 
Let us take them seriatim : — 
(a) One or Two Gardens for the Citrus Genus. 
There are so many fine and distinct varieties of this w^onderful genus 
• — some of which are very little known out of the localities in which they 
are grown — that it would be an advantage to the people of the Empire, 
and also to mankind in general, to have them collected for the study of 
their botanical and horticultural characteristics and commercial values. 
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