62 
EASTERN ETHIOPIA 
V 
The Banana [Musa), a gigantic herbaceous plant, 
common in the tropical parts of the East, is cultivated 
in all tropical and subtropical countries. It grows wild 
in Uganda, but among the cultivated plants it is 
estimated that there are more than thirty varieties. 
A banana plantation is as typical of Uganda as a wheat- 
lield is of an English county, or a potato-field of 
Ireland. 
The banana is a curious plant: it forms a spurious 
stem by the sheathing bases of the leaves. Such a stem 
may rise fifteen or twenty feet in height. Some of the 
leaves are ten feet in leno:th and two feet across the 
blade. These large fan-like leaves are often of a delicate 
green and move with every breath of wind ; indeed a 
banana plantation is a feast of colour. 
The banana is propagated by young shoots which 
arise from its roots. The old stem dies down after 
flowering and fruiting, and a new stem from the old 
root takes its place. The flower is of interest, for it 
consists of a conical bulb of purple spathes.' The 
poorly developed petals and reproductive parts are 
covered by a huge purple spathe which surmounts the 
stalk. When the fruit forms, the stalk becomes top- 
heavy and doubles on itself. 
Dr. Cook found these spathes very useful. The 
Baganda love physic, but it was difficult to persuade 
the patients at the Missionary Hospital to take the 
stuff in definite quantities at regular hours; they 
preferred to drink it wholesale. Graduated medicine 
glasses could not be supplied, but the deficiency is not 
felt because the spathe of a banana is shaped like a 
spoon, and its concavity holds for practical purposes one 
ounce of fluid, and thus fulfils the function of a medicine 
glass. 
When a native goes out in the rain he takes off his 
clothes, carries them under his arm and uses a banana 
leaf as an umbrella. Bark cloth, as clothing, is soon 
ruined by rain. Women sometimes wrap a baby in a 
