The weekly Republican., 1892-05-19
THE PLANTAiN.
The New Fruit to be Popular for American
 Consumption.

ped to the United States in larger quan- titles and one has only to be at home
 for few weeks to feel hungry for a
 taste of rich roast plantain, Of juicy
 mangoe, or natures ready-prepared
 salad of alligator pear, dream in vel
 low, white and green, says writer ia the Chicago Inter Ocean. The time is near at hand when we may all enjoy
 these luxuries without going to the land of scorpions, tarantulas and "poco
 tiempo ways. Fifteen years ago the banana was curiosity brought only to this land by schooners loaded with ma hogany. Today it is tickling the palate and tripping the heels of the Yankees from classic Boston to the latest mining discovery in the Rockies. In 1881 the Illinois Central railroad handled only 370 cars of bananas and in 1891 over | 5200 cars. Last year the total value Of this fruit imported by Uncle Sam's boys was $72,UO0, GOO. There is another fruit closely resembling the banana that | is superior to it in many respects and will ] become a greater favorite with every one as soon as the people become ac- quainted with it; it Is the plantaIn. l | suggest that the Inter Ocean introduce | 1t to Americans as the coming tropical fruit, destined to be one of the greatest favorites in the market. It is queer | that 90 little is known about 1t in the states, for it is really one of the oldest ! plants known to mankind. The banana | is known to botanists as the musa sa- piewtum, but the plautain as the musa paradisiaca, or the apple of paradise. | The Spaniards call it the "platano" on account oi it's broad spreading leaf, der. lying the name from the Latin word | from winch we have taken our woid plant. The delicious, seedless fruit is known in all tropical countries. It was | iaVorite with the Greeks and Romans. Pliny grows eiateG over the "plantago, /" and Alexander declared them boon to | his soldiers.
 The plant grows wild in Siam and Ceylon, and iu the Philippine islands {; | but was evidently brought to the West ern hemisphere by the Portugese, as there is no native name for it in all the native languages of this continent. 1t is claimed by E. s. (Baoen-Shakespearet | Donnely that the plantain originated in | Atlantis, the mysterious continent that took q McGinty dive into the depths between Spain and the West Indies, | taking the Garden of Eden down with | it. Be that as it may, il IS curious | truth that it's scientific name embalms the fact that all the Orient legends calls l this fruit either the Apple of Para disc" or Adams Fig" the identical fruit with which Eye tempted Adam. | Uvery one who is acquainted with this | luscious fruit will at once admit that this temptation was teniold greater | than anything in the Ben Davis or rus set line could possibly have been. Ii | Eve simply ate her fruit first ,and threw the peelings on the ground where Adam | stepped on them, no wonder he fell, for the big plantain peeling has many ad- vantages over it's relative, the banana, in seeing that sinners do not stand on slippery places.
 When this fruit becomes better known | in America the old pictures of our beau | tiful mother Eve will have to be modi- lied. This fig leaf, the genuine musa paradisica, is from fifteen to eighteen feet long and a yard wide. Three yards of such soft green cloth from natures loom, trimmed with delicate orchids, would surpass in beauty and respecta- | bility the latest creation of a Worth or Q Redfern.
 The average fruit buyer does not know whether bananas and plantains grow on trees as high as pine or run as vine on the ground like the pump kin. 1t is difficult at first to tell either | the fruit or the tree of the banana from the plantain. The banana is quite small compared with It's older relative, and there is no resemblance whatever in taste. The banana is best raw. The plantain IS unfit to eat unless cooked.
 To eat it raw would be as bad as eating pumpkin raw. When ripe it looks like banana, but is twice as large. The cross section, too, IS more triangular, | the pulp iirmer Tn texture and not so mealy. In nourishment the accumula- ton of starch and sugar in the golden, obloug pulp makes it equal, if not su- periOr, pound for pound, to our best | Dakota wheat bread.
 Th9 tree is the queen of the tropics, starting from the soil like calla lily, from tuberous root. Several stalks are sent up from this root, nine or tel months after planting. When the first stalk IS ripening others are three-quar- | ters grown, so that from three to five punches are obtained from each plant every year. 1t requires less labor than the banana to raise and bears for twenty years. It grows so luXuriantly that the ground which will produce one bushel of wheat will yield 700 pounds of plan tain. It is better adapted for transpor- tation, as it does not decay and spoil as easily as the banana. It may be gath cred every day in the year, like the mama of israel, fresh every morning, but does not spoil like the heavenly food that fell in Arabia. It must be cooked thoroughly. It may be boiled or fried. but the best way IS to roast, bake or stew.
 Boiled with Ick it is dream of de- 1 light to the epicure. It needs no sea i sOning; nature has already prepared it for mans palate, Baked, it is dainty | fit for kings. Roasted with game il would do more tO convert q democrat to | the delights and advantages of recipoc- | ity with the Spanish republics than all | the tariff speeches embalmed in the Congressional Record. Roasted plan | tain sold at the street corners would Causa the nickels to jump out Of the pockets oi tired, hungry pedestrians quicker than hot tamaIes, besides being easier and heater to eat. Dried, the l plantain keeps for years. It makes q -four that yields delightful biscuit and royal bread. To the native Spaniard tbe fresh fruit takes the place of potato, and the dried meal is better than rice. The fruit could be sliced and dried by i iruit-driers like those used in California, and shipped everywhere. lt only needs to be known to be appreciated as thor oughly as those other gifts of the trop- ics, bananas, chocolate and cO:on. Chicago is q missionary city, showing the rest of the world how to got the most ] nnl hnsI nninNmnnl nnI nf life and