280 
BANANA TREE. 
agreeable acid taste imparted to it, which makes it 
both refreshing and nourishing. 
The fruit of the banana is eaten in different 
ways : when gathered fresh from the tree it forms a 
wholesome and cooling food ; but although the na- 
tives are very fond of it in this state, it is more fre- 
quently fried in slices as fritters, or roasted in hot 
cinders, or boiled in the same kettle with their salt 
meat. In any way it is easily digested, unless 
eaten to excess. When the fruit is cut transversely, 
something like the figure of a cross appears im- 
printed in the centre : this has made the banana 
greatly esteemed, and even venerated, by the na- 
tives of Madeira, who call it the forbidden fruit, and 
reckon it a crime of the first magnitude to cut it 
with a knife. 
The stems of the bananas, which are thick and 
herbaceous, preserve their moisture for a considera- 
ble time after they have been cut down, which is 
generally done every year after they have produced 
their fruit. With these stems the inhabitants feed 
their cattle and sheep, who are very fond of them. 
The plantations of bananas, which are very exten- 
sive in the West Indies, are subject to two con- 
siderable drawbacks ; the first is from those dread- 
ful hurricanes which are but too common in that 
part of the world, and which sweep down all before 
them ; and the other from the perishable nature of 
the fruit, which ripening in great abundance at a 
certain time of the year, soon rots, and will hardly 
bear to be removed to any distance. This has in- 
