The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1894-08-19

ETu1C.
From the New York Post.
How few Of those who give a glance of
momentary admiration at the golden piles
on the fruit stalls, or who MUNICH ba-
mana just for the sake of eating some
thing, reflect that here is a fruit with a
history; and yet it is highly probable that
the banana is the oldest product of hui
man tillage." We will not debate as to
its digestibility. or its utility, for-"de
gustibus non disputandum," but it may
be worth while briefly to study banana
history.
If we wish to be very accurate, we must
say that the banana is member of the
order Musacee, so-called by Lann8us,
proba bly, with a classical reference, see
ing that he named kindred plants Urania
and Heliconia. Critical scholars, how
ever, tell you that the name is derived
from the Arabic "mouZn or "mauwz, 'but
l am sceptical on this point There are
several species of musa, one in particular
-musa teXtilis-being of the utmost i'm
portance to our commercial industries, as
the source from which we obtain manila
hemp. Another has been of immense
service in Polynesia in affording un-
limited supplies of food to the South Sea
Islanders. II is musa chinensis, a plant
of which was given by the duke
of Devonshire to the missionary
John Williams, who established it
in Samoa only a short time before
he was murdered on Erromanga. The
banana of commerce is called musa sapien-
tum, perpeUuating a story told by the Ro-
man naturalist, Pliny, that Alexander the
Great found the banana in India, aud
that it was the custom for the eastern
sages TO sit under its shade and eat its
fruit. This name being given to the ba-
mana of commerce, the plantain, which is
used as food before ripening, was called
musa paradlsalaca, also perpetuating a
legend That it was that Tree of the
knowledge of good and evil, " for the fruit
Of which iRqGlsitive Eve is said to have
bartered the happiness of all her chill
dren. There is every reason TO believe
that these two are one and the same
plant. and, therefore it is proposed to use
only the name sapientum, and to connect
the banana with the sages rather than
| with so melancholy an event as that sung
| of by Milton.
"Of man first disobedience and the fruit
OF that forbidden tree.
! Regarding the banana in the light of
! its relationship to other plants, we find
that it belongs to the lily type, and is not
! far removed from the common iris. Diff
! ferences exist, of course, such as that the
| HONGLo anu lIulb dIO CluSbCIbu bO&6butE
| on hanging spike, instead of growing
solitary, as in the true irises. There is
no mistaking this lily type, if you will
| familiarize yourself with the six petals,
six stamens and three rows of seeds, and
| you have only to look at the blossom of
the banana, or at a well-shaped angular
| specimen of the fruit, to know where
in the vegetable kingdom you must place
it.
Man, however, in some tropical climate
was struck with the food value of the
seed vessel. 1t may have been some pecu-
liarly succulent specimen he gathered,
and in gathering it he may have torn off
| the portion Of the stem on which it grew.
Having eaten the seed vessel and found it
not unpalatable. he stuck the branch, or
stemlet, into the earth, and, some time
after, found that it not only had survived,
but produced other seed vessels for him.
And so the system went on. BY select
ing time after time, form was at last
secured in which all the reproductive ten
denotes are almost eliminated, and the
seed vessel, still retaining it's lilytype
shape, has become receptacle, not for
seeds, but for sweet and heshy pulp
This tropical mans efforts have been
crowned with such success that now we
have what is practically a seedless fruit.
Similar results have been, or are being
attained in other plants, as in the orange,
in the pineapple and in grapes notably
in those which we know in the dried
state as "currants," which is merely a
corruption of ''Corinthian" grapes.
IL may well be that the fruits of tropi-
cal and subtropical countries respond
more readily to the calls made upon them
by man, for notwithstanding the long
centuries of apple culture we have not vet
arrived at a seedless variety of that fruit
of the temperate regions. Pears appear
hs Toll a l.vaE IL.
right to produce seeds, and In a very hard
she'll too. Perhaps. after all, there is
some truth in ascribing sturdier char
acteristics TO the inhabitants of the tenn
perate regions, whether vegetable, animal
or human.
How long ago this selection by domes-
tication took place in the case of the ba-
mana, it is impossible to say. De Candolle,
still the greatest authority on the "Origin
of Cultivated Plants" speaks in a SEN
tence which is almost incomprehensible,
of great antiquity of culture" of
primitive existence" and of "a diffusion
contemporary with, or even anterior to,
that of the human races" He can
scarcely wish us TO imply that the orang-
outanR took 10 gardening In a sudden fit
Of intellectual development PRIOR to the
appearance on earth Of "our first par
ents," If so, / fear we must add his Ma
layan ape-ship to the list of degenerate
races.
However this may be; the habit in
duced by selection has become what NAV
be reservedly called permanent. and the
plant has become one of the most import
ant and prolific sources of food for man
kind Having lost its seed-producing
powers, IL must be propagated by suckers,
and tins feature also has developed the
plant There is no difficulty in this re-
spect with the banana. although there is
with many other plants. AS is well
known, this mode of propagation is calcu-
lated 10 perpetuate what horticulturists
call sports '-peculiarities of individual
shOots-and thus no less than forty-fve
different varieties have been recorded,
varying in size from fifteen inches To one
inch long, and from the delicate ''dom-
inc" of Mexico 10 the coarse, hbrous, red
banana.
A point well worthy Of notice Is that al
though in plants thus artifcially subdued
and diverted from their natural course,
there is a tendency TO revision and de-
generation, the banana appears to be cap
able Of resisting the tendency. In this
respect IL is superior to many domesti-
Gated plants which, in spite Of all the
efforts Of the culturists, obey the ten
dency. A notable instance is that Of the
potato, which, although il has been I'M
der cultivation only some few hundred
years, has become so enfeebied that IL