Sacramento daily record-union. [volume] (Sacramento [Calif.]) 1875-1891, 1888-07-14
WHOLE NO. 1890

, srahu appearance they prescn; curing the
summer season amply repays one for the
, very little labor required to raise them
captain VIM. Dampier, the famous tray
eIer, scientist and 5uccaneer, in 1861 Tins
writes of this plant.
The plantain is the king of all F.,iits
not excepting the cocoa itself. The tree
is three feet or three aud half round. ard
ten or twelve high. 1t is not raised from
seed, but from the roots of other old trees
If these young suckers are taken ont of the
ground and planted in another place. Il
viii be fifteen months before they bear but
II left standing in their own native soil
they bear In twelve months. As soon as
/ The frult is ripe the tree always dies. and
! many young ones grow up to supply it's
place. The fruit of it is so excellent that
the Spaniards give it the preference TO all
Others as the most conducting TO life. 1t
grows IN q cod SIX or seven inches long
and as big as mans arm. The rind is
soft and yellow when ripe 1t resembles
IN shape hogs pudding The inclosed
frult is no harder than butter is in winter.
and much of the color. 1t is of delicate
taste, and melts in ones mouth like mar
malade. 1t is all pure pulp, without any
seed, kernel or stone The fruit Is SO
much esteemed by all Europeans that set
tie in America, that when they make a
new plantation they commonly begin with
good plantain walk, enlarging it as their
family increases. Some or other of the
trees are bearing most of the year. and
this is many times the whole food of the
family. They thrive only in rich fiat
ground-poor sandy soil will not bear
them Nhar, thiS f.,r,t =
bread 1t is roasted or boiled, when it is
Just full grown, but not yet ripe or turned
yellow. The Indians and negroes eat
them in variety of ways, both raw and
dressed, fresh and preserved They also
make fermented liquor with them, which
they drink always new. The ordinary
people of Aiindanao wear no other cloth
but what is made from the tibers of the
trunk. There is another sort in Alinda-
mao, shorter and less than the other.
These are full of black seeds, mixed quite
through the fruit. They are binding, and
much eaten by those that have fuxes. In
the West Indies the fruit is generally
used when full grown, but before it ripens.
1t is commonly peeled and roasted, and is
thus distributed among the negroes, by
whom 1t is mostly used, though many of
the whites prefer it to any Of the bread
kind, especially whilst young and tender.
The negroes generally boil it with other
messes, such as salt fish, beef, pork, pickle
or crabs, and find it hearty, wholesome
food. As the fruit ripens 1t becomes soft
and sweetish, and is then generally made
into tarts, or sliced and fried with butter.
The juice Of the tree is rough astringent.
The leaves are generally used to dress
blisters, and when dried are made inte
mats, or employed to stuff mattresses. Tho
Spaniards dry and preserve the fruit as 4
sweetmeat. The ripe fruit and maize to-
gether are the best food for hogs, put up to
fat and give them a most exquisite favor
and firmness. On thrusting knife INTO
the body of the plant the astringent
limpid water that issues out is given, with
great success, to persons subject to a spit
ting Of blood and in huxes"
The fruit of some of the many varieties
is eaten raw in the South Sea Islands;
others are baked or roasted, according to
the quality Of the fruit. The first is the
principal ornament to the gardens in Ota-
heite. The last are in the mountains of
the islands that are covered with trees.
This fruit is easy of digestion and very
agreeable, although to many its clammy
sweetness is unpleasant. Rumpheus thinks
that whether ripe or green, this fruit. run
ming readily into putrescence, increases
chronic dysentery.