352 
GUATEMALA. 
If the planting of bananas is to profit the grower, lie 
must raise enough — say twenty thousand bunches a 
month — to freight his own steamer, and be independent 
of the present monopolies of the Italian fruiterers. The 
extent of this business is seen in the fact that from Liv¬ 
ingston in 1883 were exported 29,699 bunches, and in 
1884, 54,633, or nearly double the amount. 
This is not the proper place to enter into a detailed 
history of the banana, its culture and its varieties; but 
there is much un¬ 
certainty in the 
Northern mar¬ 
kets as to the dis¬ 
tinction between 
bananas and plan¬ 
tains, which it 
may be well to re¬ 
move. At pres¬ 
ent plantains are 
not brought to the 
Boston or New 
York markets. Botanically, it is difficult to distinguish 
between these two fruits, as connecting varieties run 
imperceptibly into the two extremes ; no one, however, 
would ever mistake a typical plantain for a banana, 
either single or in bunch. Of all the varieties of the 
banana (and I have myself seen at least two hundred, 
including the seeding-banana of Chittagong), only two 
or three are raised for exportation in Guatemala, and 
these are by no means the best; but as the steamer 
people will give no more for a choice variety, there 
is no inducement to improve the stock. Both yellow 
Bunch of Plantains (young). 
