ESCULENT MUSACEM, 
been required for its growtli ; and yet only eight or ten 
months were necessary for its fall development. 
Each shaft produces its fruit but oncej when it withers 
and dies ; but new shoots spring forth from the root, 
and, before the year has elapsed, unfold themselves with 
the same luxuriance. TlmSj without any other laljour 
than now and then weedinf^ the field, fruit follows upon 
fruitj and harvest upon harvest, A single bunch of 
bananas often weighs from sixty to seventy pounds, and 
Humboldt has calculated that thirty-three pounds of 
wheat and ninety-nine pounds of potatoes recjuii^e the 
same space of gi'ound to grow upon as will produce 4000 
pounds of bananas. 
This prodigality of Xature, seemingly so favourable to 
the human race, is however attended with great disadvan- 
tages; for wliero the life of man is reudered too easy, his 
best powers reiujiin dormant, and he almost sinks to the 
level of the plant which alFords him subsistence without 
labour. Exertion awakens our faculties as it iucreases 
our enjoyments, aud well may we rejoice that wheat and 
not the banana ripens in our fields. 
As the seeds of the cultivated plantain and bauana 
never or very rarely come to maturity, they can only be 
propagated by suckers. " In both hemispheres," says 
Humboldt, "as far a.<5 tradition or history reaches, we 
find plantains cultivated in the tropical zone. It is as 
certain that African slaves have introduced, in the course 
of centuries^ varieties of the banana into America, as tbat 
before the discovery of Columbus the plantain was culti- 
vated by the aboriginal Indians. 
"These plants are fche ornaments of humid countries. 
Like the farinaceous cereals of the north, they accompany 
man from the first infancy of his civilisation. Jewish 
traditions place their original home on the banks of the 
Euphrates ; others, with greater probability, at the foot 
of the Himalayas. According to the Greek mythology, 
the plains of Enna were the fortunate birthplace of the 
