284 
BANANA TREE. 
e( The long stalk that bears the figs of the ensete 
springs from the centre of the plant, or rather is 
the body or solid part of the plant itself. Upon 
this, where it begins to bend, are a parcel of loose 
leaves, then grows the fig upon the body of the 
plant without any stalk ; after which the top of the 
stalk is thick set with small leaves, in the midst of 
which it terminates the flower in form of the arti- 
choke : whereas in the banana, the flower, in form 
of the artichoke, grows at the end of that shoot or 
stalk which proceeds from the middle of the plant, 
the upper part of which bears the row of figs. The 
leaves of the ensete are a web of longitudinal fibres 
closely set together ; the leaves grow from the bot- 
tom, and are without stalks: whereas the banana is 
in shape like a tree, and has been mistaken for such. 
One half of it is divided into a stem, the other is a 
head formed of leaves ; and in place of the stem 
that grows out of the ensete, a number of leaves 
rolled together round like a truncheon, shoots out 
of the heart of the banana, and renews the upper as 
the under leaves fall oflf : but all the leaves of the 
banana have a long stalk ; this fixes them to the 
trunk, which they do not embrace by a broad base, 
or involucrum, as the ensete does. 
“ But the greatest differences are still remaining: 
the banana has, by some, been mistaken for a tree 
of the palmaceous tribe, for no other reason but a 
kind of similarity in producing the fruit on an ex- 
crescence, or stalk, growing from the heart of the 
stem; but still the musa is neither woody norperen- 
