70 
SPICES 
CHAP. 
several reasons. In the first place, he says, it is in- 
securely attached to the ground, and is uprooted by the 
least puff of wind and in falling will crush the vines. 
In Bourbon as well as the Antilles, people talk of a 
banana -wind (coup de vent hanane), a wind strong 
enough to upset the bananas, but not strong enough 
to uproot ordinary trees. The violence of wind and 
its action in different parts of the world is extremely 
variable, but the author has seldom, if ever, seen banana 
plants uprooted by wind in the Malay region, even 
where big trees have been blown down. 
A second objection raised is that thieves who are 
tempted by the bananas cut down the stems of the 
plants to get the fruits, thus crushing the vines ; and 
thirdly, that the banana exhausts the soil of important 
elements of nutrition, such as potassium and lime, to 
the injury of the vanilla. 
I doubt if, provided the planter restores to the soil 
the remains of the leaves and dead stems of the bananas, 
this loss of plant food will affect the vanilla to any 
extent. Bananas are often used as shade for other 
plants, and do not seem to injure the ground at all, but 
on the contrary rather improve it by breaking up the 
soil, and at the same time the planter has the benefit 
of the fruit. However, M. des Grottes observes that 
bananas can be used as temporary shade until the other 
shade trees are grown up, and admits having seen very 
fine vines grown under the shade of bananas. 
Some recommend the Moving a pterygosperma (often 
known as the horse-radish tree) on account of its rapid 
growth from seed or cuttings, and its light, open, lattice- 
like foliage. This would be satisfactory in a country 
where the natives are not so fond of the foliage and 
bark as vegetables as they are all over the East, where 
the tree is very quickly despoiled. Papaya, again, sug- 
gested by some of the Nossibe planters, is objected to 
on the ground that it grows so luxuriantly in and 
about old walls and house rubbish, which suggests that 
it would deprive the soil too extensively of its lime. 
