THE BANANA.
Tall and stately, capped by a gracefully arched group of leaves and a nodding spike of numerous flowers, the banana is noted alike for its beauty, its nourishing fruit and its many qualities of economic value. Some one has said, "The banana is the queen among ornamental herbs, and the household god of the laborer's cottage."
To him who dwells in the tropics the banana is as wheat and rice are to the inhabitants of more temperate regions.
Nearly all the authorities on the distribution of plants believe the banana to be a native of Asia and that it was not found in the New World previous to its introduction by man. An argument which strongly supports this theory is the lack of native names for the plant in Mexico and in South America. It was mentioned by the early Latin and Greek writers, but seems to have been unknown to the ancient Egyptians.
Botanical authorities quite generally agree that the numerous varieties of our common banana are produced from Musa sapientum. The generic name, Musa, is by some claimed to have its origin in the Arabic word Moux, their name for this group of plants. Others claim that the name was given in honor of Antonius Musa, a physician who cured Augustus Caesar of a disease that had been considered incurable. The specific name has its origin in the myth that the groves of the banana plant were used by the sages or wise men (sapientes) of India for their councils and for rest, they also partaking of the fruit.
Another species of the genus Musa is called paradisiaca from the mythical story that it was the forbidden fruit of Paradise. The common name of this species is the plantain and by many it is considered the parent of the numerous varieties in cultivation in Asia and the adjacent islands and also in the New World. Many eminent authorities believe that both the banana and the plantain, with the numerous varieties of each, are the same species.
The banana plant is herbaceous and dies down to the ground after fruiting. The true stem is underground and perennial, sending up new shoots each season, which grow rapidly and in a few months bear ripened fruit.
The stalk that bears the flowers grows to a height of from fifteen to twenty feet and is surrounded by the sheathing bases of the leaves. The flower cluster or spike is terminal and from two to four feet in length and nodding. The oblong leaves are dark green in color, from five to ten feet in length, and from one to two feet in width. The beautifully arching leaves and the pendulous cluster of flowers or fruits forms an attractive foliage and makes the plant a noted ornament for the garden.
The many varieties of both the banana and plantain, which vary in taste, color, form and size, are very widely distributed throughout the world, being usually found in a zone bounded by 38 degrees North and 38 degrees South latitude. It is said that a single plant will produce, on the average, in one year three bunches of fruit weighing fifty or more pounds. The amount of labor required in its cultivation is very small, especially in the older plantations.
The number of bananas on a single stalk of the ordinary variety varies from about one hundred to two hundred, with an average of about one hundred and thirty. When a plantation is fully developed growth is so rapid and so constant that ripe bunches of fruit may be gathered each week.