The Helena independent. [volume] (Helena, Mont.) 1875-1943, 1891-09-07
THE BANANAS DEVELOPMENT.


IL Was Originally = Tropical I4ily and II q
Very oiA Fruit.
The banana goes back 10 tho earliest days
says G~oldthwait's Biographical Magazine
Alexander. seldiera, ~ pliny says, Joined
ths aages OF India seated In ita shades and
partakinR Of the delicious fruits. Hence
tho naiae ''sapientnm" given tho plant,
which likewise bears the name Of Jupitcr's
fair daughter, NusA. Now 10 has been
shown that the banana 10 Of MaylayAn
origin. How did it get TO India and 10
south America and MexicoY Tho feet Of
birds have borne seed a full 10000 miles.
world around in the great ocean currents.
But the banana has no aaeda, nor has il q
casing like the globuler cocoanut to float IL
around over the waters. Then 1t muRt have
carried by. man. II IN sieniacans that the
Aztecs had traditions OF visits by people
from over tho seas, while there was, to con-
Arm il, an admixture Of thu religion Of tho
Erahmina in their own theology. Would
you think thut the despised banana would
actually step forward to prove that before
an oxistenoe, some swarthy denizens of the
old world had migrated across the watersp
Manila rope is mado in the Phillippine
islands OF the stem of the banan This
stalk, which usually grows to be ak inches
in diameter n from fifteen to twenty feet
llNAs AAb u VUIy NNtNNpl hpSI WAlCu
are woven beautiful textile fabrics. Many
of the finest India shawls and wrapper
worn by ladies Of fashion are manufactured
from this fabric.
So, too, an excellent article of paper ia
made from it. Hut are no varieties of
in Ceylon, Cochin China and the Philip
pines. These, of course, have seeds, but
they are inferior to tho long, cultivated
The banana is cultivated by
and it ia in this way that the literal
plant psrpetsates itself indefinitely. In
Of plants that literally have in
them the germ and life Of 10000 years' du-
ton.
The banana belongs to the lily family
and is a developed tropical lily. from
which, by ages OF cultivation. the seeds
which it was cultivated, greatly expanded.
In relation to the bearing qualities Of this
fruit Humboldt, who early saw the wonders
of the plant, said that the ground that
would grew ninety pounds OF potatoes
would also grow thirty-thrse pounds Of
grow 1900 pounds of bananas,
consequently to that of wheat il
SO to one and to that Of potatoes
:orty-four to one. The banana possesses
III of the essentials to the ~sustenance OF
ife. The savaRs of the sea isles and the
JINGLE owes he has of physical
to this food.
Wheat alone, potatoes alone. will not do
his. When taken as a steady diet it ia
'ooked-baked dry in the green state,
and boiled in water rs soup, or cut
n slices and fried. I do not know whose
'eauty ] admire the most, the majestic
ocoa balm, with its heavy crown of great
leaves. or the graceful banana, with
10 great leaves, which are six feet long and
feet wide.
The leaves of the banana are lender and
he strong winds of the tropics-the hurri-
tear the leaves in strips, there-
y adding to their grace and beauty. The
is n fruit that beast and bird, as
ell az man, are fond of, and the owner,
hen be lives in a s~parsely settled country,
tust needs protect his plantation by a
nee of some thorn plant.