XXXV 
THE BANANA PLANT IS ALL LEAVES 
I SN'T IT ODD that the banana plant has a way of 
growing which makes it so different from other plants 
that it has almost no relatives! 
To be sure, it has one relative that grows in almost any 
park and in many private gardens. Everybody knows 
the canna with the great purple leaves. It is close kin 
to the banana plant and grows in much the same way. 
Two great differences in plants are that some of them 
are outside growers, and others are inside growers. The 
apple tree, for instance, is an outside grower. Every year 
it puts a new layer of wood on the outside of its trunk. 
The grass of the field, on the contrary, is an inside grower. 
The lower stem remains the same size, but new joints and 
blades are put forth from the inside. 
But there are several styles of these inside growers. 
Sugar cane is a grass and puts on one joint after another, 
much as boys put one hand above another on a baseball 
bat to see who shall have first choice. The grasses grow 
at the top. They are inside growers that have joints. 
The palm tree is an inside grower, but goes about grow¬ 
ing in a different way. It builds itself a chimney. The 
material to make new leaves and to add to the height of 
the chimney comes up through the inside. The chimney 
may stand for a hundred years without getting any bigger 
around. 
The banana plant is an inside grower, but it builds its 
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