The weekly Floridian. [volume] (Tallahassee, Fla.) 1867-19??, 1882-05-30

plate the wonders OF nature.
The great stems which bear the fruit
grow from two to three feet long, and
start from the clefts at the base of the
branches or leaves. They are extended
in the process of nature by long joints,
three or four to q stem, each outer one
lessening in size, as though the piston of
nature paused in its labor and renewed
its work in driving through its upper
chamber the sap for another tube, to be
CONCEALED by the atmosphere in the pro-
cess to the end. Its propelling task is
finished, or its power exhausted. In the
month of September, in the region of
Tallahassee, the bananas are ripening,
and the dead bud is dropping.
Generally, but one branch or bearing
stem is produced by plant. Stems pro-
duce from a single hand to six or seven,
bearing from six to forty bananas. And
this locality is not claimed to be the nat
ural location of the plant. 1t is largely
being cultivated for commerce in South
ern Florida, and travellers will easily be
enabled to witness fine groves, by inquiry,
on their way In many instances the
product of tree is much larger than in
dicated by this description as to the plant
in Middle Florida Like the citrus, the
banana has become a leading object of
cultivation in Florida in later years. 1t
is not native to the State. Twenty-Five
years ago there were few plants grown
here.
In square of a quarter of an acre in
Tallahassee the plants closely cover the
outer line, in number about one hundred,
and sufficient of them bear to afford a
supply of fruit to hotel table during a
season.
From a planted root several trees will
spring in cluster within circle of a
few feet. They will rise to the height
mentioned, and if not killed by cold, will
survive in the second year. With their
suckers from the ground, the cluster will
be constantly renewed; or, if killed by
the cold, they will spring up again the
next more favorable season.
One tree may bear the first year; it
then withers and is cut or dies down, and
from the centre of the stump springs a
new tree; another bears the next year,
and so annually so that in a grove there
will be only proportion bearing at one
season. The roots are durable, and
spread almost without culture; so, that,
for tropical ornament alone, the trees are
worth planting, and there is no excuse for
housekeeper not taking the chance of
having table desert which requires little
more than watching to possess.
Esthetically, there is nothing more
grand than the close-set banana line. The
great, green shining trunk, with it's sur
face like marble, fifteen to twenty inches
in diameter, is crowned with its leaf for
nation, measuring again the height of
the trunk in the air. Each leaf in itself
is, on its strong midrib, a spreading branch
or bough. They reach out in many stalks
from the body, proportioning the cluster
well to the shaft of the tree. The lower
leaves, dropping down, stripped laterally
into ribbons between the strong nerves
which divide the cloth like the folds of
an open fan, from the frailty of texture,
look like disordered fronds, while the new
and gorgeous foliage surmounts them.
AS the banana is sometimes called in
Eastern lands the bread tree, its top
leaves fame up to the sun, signal for
the famished exile to return to the garden
of the tree of life /; or they sway to and
fro in the ether deep like great paddles in
the mirage of an Eden river.
Each leaf springs isolated from cleft.
At first appears a green staff, which is
almost surprise to the eye, so suddenly
has it emerged from the base of the clus-
ter. 1t may be six or seven feet long,
and is as perfect and round as a walking
cane, green, and curving and tapering to
the top. This proves to be the leaf, the
lap being unseen around It's midrib till it
expands. In the lapse of night an en-
erald flag is unfurled from the staff, which
develops its full glory upon the third day.
No son of Erin, remembering his native
land, should refuse nature the privilege of
hanging over his home in Florida the
banner he loves so well
The leaf is somewhat lanceOlate, though
obtuse at the point, and often enlarges TO
size over six feet in length and more
than two in width. When first opened.
with its perfect structure and transparent
green, lifted erect, it is the most beautiful
sight in nature. This great fabric, almost
q thing of magic, and sensitive to the
touch of frost, green, succulent and tender
from root to crown, seems destitute Of
woody fibre, although it may be called
the monarch of its kind. Standing upon
verandah, and reading its mystic story
with close eye, the human form can be
concealed behind it. At the battle Of
San Jacinto, the Mexicans, retreating,
fighting, and fording the river, screened
their forms under the immense bonnet
leaves lying on its surface. In the open
field, thousand men, standing erect.
could hide in the ambuscade Of the arial
semaphore. Well may the banana be
named of the genus poradisiacG, when it
towers aloft as something more grand
than the heavenly wonders which it
screens.
The prisoner from the Ganges, released
after long exile in Paris, when he entered
the GGrdin des Plants, bowed under a
banana tree as under shrine, and wept
tears of joy to behold again the plant
which consecrated to him the name of
home.
The thousands buffeting life upon q
spar, looking to Florida as the haven Of
rest, and whose hopes may discern the
mast and sails of this floral ship emerging
on the tropical horizon, may feel the
thrill of restoration upon our soil.
The words of Whittier, written upon
the enchantments of his home. when the
seasons came in which it was ~snow-
bound" no longer seem more applicable
to the Banana Land:
The traveller owns the grateful sense