354 
GUATEMALA. 
The second year the increase would be in favor of the 
plantain, and the product has reached more than thirty- 
five thousand per acre. Of the fibre no account has 
been taken, although this bids fair to become an impor¬ 
tant by-product. The plantain contains more fibre than 
the banana, — the inner portion in both stems being 
much finer. At present the possible four pounds of fibre 
in each stem is wasted; and as the stems should be cut to 
the ground after the fruit is gathered, these large fibrous 
trunks are much in the way of cultivation. It will be 
remembered that the Manilla hemp is the product of a 
species of banana (Musa textilis). 
Usually bananas or plantains are planted in a cafetal 
or in a cacao or orange orchard, to shade the young 
plants, and after three or four years are removed as the 
more permanent trees attain their growth. All the fruit 
exported must be cut and shipped while quite green and 
not fully grown ; and this, conjoined to the tar and bilge 
smell of the steamers, certainly gives the fruit a flavor it 
does not have in its native land when allowed to attain 
its full growth and then slowly ripened under shelter 
from the sun. Bananas, like some pears, should not be 
allowed to ripen on the trees. 
There are two articles of food and commerce which 
should certainly attract the attention of merchants, and 
so of the public, in our Northern States, — fresh plan¬ 
tains, as a most nutritious and delicious vegetable, more 
costly than the banana, though of easier transport; and 
the dried plantain, for which there is already an in¬ 
creasing market on the Pacific coast. 
Pita and Sisal Hemp. — The mention of the plan¬ 
tain-fibre calls to mind two very valuable fibrous plants 
