lantain.
There is hardly a cottage in the tropics that is not partly shaded by
them; and it is successfully grown under other fruit trees, although
it is independent of shelter. Its succulent roots and dew-attracting
leaves render it useful in keeping the ground moist during the
greatest heats. The plantain may be deemed the most valuable of
fruits, since it will, in some measure, supply the place of grain in
time of scarcity. To the negroes in the West Indian Islands the
plantain is invaluable, and, like bread to the Europeans, is with them
denominated the staff of life. In Jamaica, Demerara, Trinidad, and
other principal colonies, many thousand acres are planted with these
trees.

The vegetation of this tree is so rapid that if a line of thread be
drawn across, and on a level with the top of one of the leaves, when
it begins to expand, it will be seen, in the course of an hour, to
have grown nearly an inch. The fruit when ripe is of a pale yellow,
about a foot in length and two inches thick, and is produced in
bunches so large as each to weigh 40 lbs. and upwards.

The soil best suited to the growth of the plantain is found in the
virgin land most recently taken in from the forest, having a formation
of clay and decomposed vegetable substances. A large portion of
organic matter is required, as well as clay or other ponderous strata,
to afford the greatest production of fruit. I have known good
plantains produced in the West Indies, upon land considerably
exhausted by the culture of cotton, but which was enriched by the
application of a quantity of the decomposed seed of that shrub near
the roots of the young plantains.

In the Straits' settlements of the East, the following are the most
approved varieties:--The royal plantain, which fruits in eight months;
one which bears in a year, the milk plantain, the downy plantain, and
the golden plantain or banana. A species termed _gindy_ has been
lately imported from Madras, where it is in great request. It has this
advantage over the other kinds, that it can be stewed down like an
apple while they remain tough.

The Malays allege that they can produce new varieties, by planting
three shoots of different sorts together, and by cutting the shoots
down to the ground three successive times, when they have reached the
height of nine or ten inches.

About 144 suckers of the plantain are set on an orlong (1-1/3 acres),
each of which spreads into a group of six or eight stems