BANANAS 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.” CHAPTER III. 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. [Illustration: A BUNCH OF BANANAS] Man has carried this gigantic herb to every fertile spot in a belt that girdles the waist of the globe--a girdle that is four thousand miles and more in width. Millions uncounted have looked to it for the chief of their diet, as other millions have looked to the cereals. And to this hour puling babes and doddering ancients are fed with the fruit in all its stages and conditions, green or over-ripe, raw or roasted, baked or fried, liquid or dried. At least forty species of the _Musas_ are known and described, and of these there are several sub-varieties. They have been classed by Dr. Sagot into three groups, as follows: Giant bananas, of which _M. ensete_ is the type. In this group no suckers are formed. Fruit leathery and not edible, with few seeds. Fleshy-fruited bananas; _M. sapientum_ the type. Stem produces suckers; spike long and decurved; fruit fleshy and usually eatable. Ornamental bananas. Spike often erect, not pendant; bracts persistent, brightly colored, each with a few flowers on its axil; suckers many; fruit leathery. _M. rosacea_ furnish familiar examples of this group.