Kew Bulletin Volume 8 (Paperback)

This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can usually download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated. 1894 edition. Excerpt: ...qualities and general use may, whether used in a raw or dressed form, be regarded rather as a necessary article of food than as an occasional luxury. In equinoctial Asm and America, in tropical Africa, in the Islands of the Atlantic and Pacific Ocean, wherever the mean heat of the year exceeds 75 Fahr., the banana is one of the most interesting objects of cultivation for the subsistence of man. The fruit is produced from amongst the immense leaves in bunches weighing 30, 60, and 80 lbs., of the richest hues, and of the greatest diversity of form. It usually is long and narrow, of a pale yellow or dark red colour, with a yellow farinaceous flesh. But in form it varies to oblong and nearly spherical; and in colour it offers all the shades and variations of tints that the combination of yellow and red, in different proportions, can produce. Some sorts are said always to be of a bright green colour. In general, the character of the fruit to an European palate is that of mild insipidity; some sorts are even so coarse as not to be edible without preparation. The greater number, however, are used in their raw state, and some varieties acquire by cultivation a very exquisite flavour, some of them surpassing the finest pear. In the better sorts the flesh is no harder than butter is in winter, and has much the colour of the finest yellow butter. It is of a delicate taste, and melts in the mouth like marmalade. To point out all the kinds that are cultivated in the East Indies alone would be as difficult as to describe the varieties of apples and pears in Europe; for the names vary according to the form, size, taste, and colour of the fruits." Besides the fruit-yielding Musas there are many species so ornamental that they are surpassed by few...