THE STORY OF THE BANANA. 
5 
whole plant. 1 he number of leaves so appearing varies from eight 
to twenty or more, according to the vigor of the plant and the soil 
conditions. These leaves are often of great size, attaining a length 
of from S to 12 feet and a width of 2 feet or even more. 
I lie trees vary much in size, those growing in the rich river bottoms 
along the Atlantic coast of Central America sometimes reaching a 
height of 40 feet, with a diameter of 18 to 24 inches. It is interesting 
to note, in comparison, that the average height of the banana tree 
in Jamaica is from 18 to 25 feet, and in Cuba from 12 to 18 feet, show¬ 
ing the effect of climatic conditions as we recede from the humid 
warmth of the torrid zone. 
As many buds or eyes are developed from a single rootstock, there 
eventually arises a little colony of plants from the same underground 
mother root, but in the course of time each plant develops a bulb of 
its own. 
As the individual plant approaches maturity, it produces a flower 
bud which later becomes a bunch of bananas. The stem which is 
to bear the fruit pushes up from the rhizome through the center of 
the leaf sheaths, until at the end of the ninth or tenth month after 
planting, the flower bud emerges at the top of the trunk, looking 
not unlike a huge ear of corn enveloped in its husks or bracts. As 
this flower bud increases in size, it bends over and downwards; the 
covering (or bracts) then drops off, disclosing the young bananas, 
quite small and pointing outward, but bending upward as they 
become larger. The terminal flower bud on the cluster is sterile and 
produces no fruit. 1 
THE FRUIT. 
Each plant developed to maturity from the rootstock bears but a 
single bunch of bananas, which is made up of so-called “hands” or 
clusters. These hands grow separately in spirals, each containing 
from 10 to 25 individual bananas or “fingers.” Commercially, 
bananas are classed as ranging from nine to six hands, any bunch 
having less than six hands not being readily marketable. The stand¬ 
ard commercial sized bunch has nine hands, all bunches with nine 
or more hands being classed as “nine hand” fruit. A nine hand 
bunch varies in weight according to the variety of the fruit and the 
soil and climatic conditions under which it is grown, the average 
weight ranging from 50 to 75 pounds. Occasionally a bunch of 
bananas is produced which has as many as 22 hands with more than 
1 The inflorescence is a terminal spike with floral leaves placed spirally, and sometimes magnificently 
colored; in the axils of each of these, several flowers are situated in two transverse rows (accessory buds); 
the lowest flowers are pistillate, the upper ones staminate, so that the fruit is found only in the lower region 
of the inflorescence, the remaining portion persisting as a naked axis after the bracts and flowers have 
fallen off, the inflorescence terminates in an ovoid bud, formed by the flowers which have not opened. 
