Bananas: Nature's Institution for the Promotion of Laziness

NATURE’S INSTITUTION FOR THE PROMOTION OF LAZINESS
By EDWARD W. PERRY
COPYRIGHTED 1903 BY HARRY WILKIN PERRY

REVISED EDITION
NOTE
The chapter given in the following pages is from a work entitled: “Tropical America: Its Planters and Plantations,” now in preparation. Sports Afield said of the author: “Probably no American is more competent to write of the country life than is this author, who, because of his long-trained habits of observation, careful search for the bottom facts and weighing of details, of deducing therefrom the essentials and presenting them clearly and concisely, has made the best possible use of his time and experience.”

Nature’s Institution for the Promotion Of Laziness. Bananas: What they are, how they grow, what they cost, and what they give to man.
Long before the dawn of history in the Old World, mayhap long before that Old World arose from the waters, man lived on the fruit of the Musas . There are those who would tell you that the banana is the fruit which tempted Eve, to the downfall of Adam; and that evidence of the truth of this may be found in the fact that if one will cut across a banana, of the right kind, he may find in its heart the sign of the cross; and in the other fact that men of learning have given to a banana the name of Musa paradisiaca , which being interpreted means the Fruit of paradise, and to another banana they have given the name Musa sapientum , which the sapient know means the Fruit of knowledge. Less evidence has served well enough to burn heretics at the stake.
A BUNCH OF BANANAS