AND SEEDS ON SHIP-BOARD. 75 
When the lamented Mr. Williams was about to 
leave England in 1839, for the Navigator Islands, 
he was anxious to take with him some useful 
plants, particularly the Musa Cavendishii. He 
inquired of me whether it would travel safely 
in one of the closed cases, and having received 
an answer in the affirmative, he applied to the 
Duke of Devonshire, who kindly gave him a 
young plant. Mr. W. left England on the 10th 
of April, 1839, and arrived at Upolu, one of the 
Navigator Islands, at the end of the following 
November. The Musa bore this long voyage 
well, and was transplanted into a favourable situa- 
tion soon after its arrival. In May, 1840, it bore 
a fine cluster of fruit, exceeding three hundred in 
number, and weighing nearly a hundred weight. 
The parent plant then died, leaving behind more 
than thirty young ones. These were distributed 
in various parts of the island, and in the follow- 
ing May all were fructiferous, and produced 
numerous offsets. To estimate the importance 
of the introduction of this plant, we must bear 
in mind the great quantity of nutritious food 
furnished by the banana. Humboldt tells us 
that he was never wearied with astonishment at 
the small portion of soil, which in Mexico, and 
the adjoining provinces, would yield sustenance 
to a family for a year, and that the same extent 
