320 BANANA-TREE. 
sheep, found in the fertile valleys of Devonshire 
and Somersetshire, and named from the village 
of Bampton, near the boundary-line between 
these counties. See SHEEP. 
BANANA-TREE,—botanically Musa sapientum. 
A tropical, endogenous, fruit-tree of the plantain- 
tree genus, but with the appearance and charac- 
ter of a gigantic, evergreen, oriental-looking herb. 
It seems to have been carried from Guinea to the 
Canary Islands, and from the latter to the West 
Indies; it is cultivated in Egypt, in Mexico, and 
in most other hot countries of both the old world 
and the new; and it was introduced to Great 
_ Britain in 1729, and is now cultivated for its 
fruit in the large stove-houses of some of our 
| choicest gardens. Its stem has a soft herbaceous 
appearance, grows to the height of about 20 feet, 
_ has the thickness of a man’s thigh at the lower 
part, diminishes gradually to the top, and is 
| marked with dark purple stripes and spots. 
_ leaves are often 6 feet long, and 22 inches broad, 
Its 
and sometimes much larger; they have a strong 
| fleshy midrib, and many transverse veins thence 
' to the border ; they are thin and tender, and 
easily torn by the wind; they come out from the 
centre of the top of the stem; they at first are 
rolled up, but afterwards expand quite flat, and 
turn backward; and so rapidly do they grow, 
that if a fine line is drawn across, they will be 
| seen, in the course of an hour, to have risen nearly 
an inch above it. The flowers are produced in 
bunches, and have a fine pink colour, and usually 
appear from March till October. The fruit is 
shorter, straighter, and rounder than that of the 
common plantain, or Musa paradisaica, and has 
a softer pulp, and a more luscious taste ; yet, 
though differing in size and other qualities with 
the several varieties of the species, it is always 
wondrously large and a most princely dessert. 
The banana is a valuable edible fruit in every 
country in which it is cultivated in the open air; 
and, in particular, it forms the principal vegetable 
| food of the Mexicans. Both the rapidity and the 
amount of its produce exceed those of every other 
known plant. In the course of 8 or 10 months 
after a sucker of it has been planted, clusters of 
fruit are formed; and in two months more, 
they are gathered. The stem is then cut down, 
and a fresh stem speedily grows to about two- 
thirds of the height of the former, and, in the 
course of about three months, bears fruit. The 
only culture required is to dig round the roots 
once or twice ,a-year. From 30 to 40 banana- 
trees, in Mexico, are planted on 1,076 square feet 
of ground, and, in the course of a twelvemonth, 
yield upwards of 4,400 lb. avoirdupois of fruit ; 
and on the same space of ground, in the same 
space of time, wheat produces only 33 lb., and po- 
tatoes 99 lb. 
A plant of the St. Helena variety of the banana 
in the Edinburgh Botanic garden, grows to the 
height of 14 feet, has very large leaves, and pro- 
ed fruit. The average weight of each bunch of 
its fruit is from 60 lb. to 80 lb. A plant of the 
Dacca variety, in the same garden, grows to the 
average height of 7 feet, and produces bunches of 
fruit of from 10 lb. to 20 lb. in weight. The 
variety Cavendishii or Chinensis, fruits at a small 
size, and, on that account, is introducible to a 
stove-house of comparatively small dimensions ; 
but, unless very great heat be given when it is 
developing its flower-spike, it has a great ten- 
dency to smother one half of each bunch of fruit 
in the folds of the leaves. Other varieties which 
have fruited in the Edinburgh Botanic Garden 
are the common banana, the French banana from 
Jamaica, and the strawberry-flavoured banana 
from the Mauritius, and several others recently 
introduced from the West Indies; and varieties 
which have flowered, but have fruited either not 
at all, or very poorly, are duscolor, rosacea, coc- 
cinea, and superba. A fruiting banana in a Brit 
ish hot-house may, by proper treatment, be made 
to yield fruit within a twelvemonth of its being 
planted as a sucker. The sap of the banana, ac- 
cording to a chemical examination of it by Bous- 
singault, contains gallic acid, acetic acid, com- 
mon salt, silica, and salts of lime and potash. It 
has a decidedly characteristic astringent taste, 
reddens tincture of litmus, and gives a yellow 
colour to stuffs immersed in it. Immediately 
after escaping from the plant, it is colourless and. 
limpid like water; but, on being exposed to the | 
air, it becomes turbid, and throws out flocculent 
matter of a dirty rose colour; and, after undergoing 
this change, it no longer has the power of mak- 
ing stuffs immersed in it yellow.—Jfiller’s Gar- 
dener’s Dictionary. — Foreign Q. Review.—Bous- 
singault’s Rural Economy.—Loudon’s G. Magazine 
and Hortus Britannicus. 
BANDAGE. A strip of flannel, linen, or cali- 
co, used in farriery for keeping dressings to 
wounds, holding together separated parts, com- 
pressing blood-vessels, and supporting in their 
natural position weak and protruding parts of 
the body. 
BANDS. Two stripes of wheat or other corn, 
twisted together at the ear-ends, and used as the 
binding of a sheaf. The bands ought to be laid 
in the morning, that they may not crack ; for, 
after the sun is up, the strain loses its elasticity, 
and cannot properly be twisted, but becomes 
brittle and liable to break below the ears, The 
reversing of a few of the straws in each stripe, so 
as to place their stubble ends among the ears of 
the other strains, adds greatly to the strength 
and the toughness of the bands. But though the 
bands should always be made while the morning 
dew is upon them, they ought not to be spread 
out in moist weather, lest they should sprout and 
be wasted, nor ought the sheaves to be bound up 
moist, lest they become mouldy and spoil. Farm- 
ers and stewards sometimes pay insufficient at- 
tention to the binding of their sheaves, and suffer 
duces both a very large and a very richly flavour- | the reapers, for despatch, to tie the bands just 
