Here it is the musa sapientum,
the banana de Soa Thome, which has crossed over to the Brazil,
and which is there known by its sharper leaves and fruit, softer
and shorter than the indigenous growth. The plant everywhere is
most vigorous in constant moist heat, the atmosphere of a
conservatory, and the ground must be low and wet, but not swampy.
The best way of planting the sprouts is so to dispose them that
four may form the corners of a square measuring twelve feet each
side; the common style is some five feet apart. The raceme, which
appears about the sixth to the tenth month, will take sixty days
more to ripen; good stocks produce three and more bunches a year,
each weighing from twenty to eighty pounds. The stem, after
fruiting, should be cut down, in order to let the others enjoy
light and air, and the oftener the plants are removed to fresh
ground the better.
The banana, when unripe, is white and insipid; it is then baked
under ashes till it takes a golden colour, and, like a cereal, it
can be eaten as bread. A little later it is boiled, and becomes a
fair vegetable, tasting somewhat like chestnuts, and certainly
better than carrots or turnips.
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