BANANAS
NATURE’S INSTITUTION FOR THE PROMOTION OFLAZINESS
By EDWARD W. PERRY
COPYRIGHTED
1903
BY HARRY WILKIN PERRY
REVISED EDITION
NOTE
The chapter given in the following pages is from a work entitled:“Tropical America: Its Planters andPlantations,” now in preparation. Sports Afield said ofthe author: “Probably no American is more competent to write ofthe country life than is this author, who, because of his long-trainedhabits of observation, careful search for the bottom facts and weighingof details, of deducing therefrom the essentials and presenting themclearly and concisely, has made the best possible use of his time andexperience.”
CHAPTER III.
Nature’s Institution for the Promotion OfLaziness. Bananas: What they are, how they grow, what they cost, andwhat they give to man.
Long before the dawn of history in the Old World, mayhap long beforethat Old World arose from the waters, man lived on the fruit of theMusas. There are those who would tell you that the banana is thefruit which tempted Eve, to the downfall of Adam; and that evidenceof the truth of this may be found in the fact that if one will cutacross a banana, of the right kind, he may find in its heart the signof the cross; and in the other fact that men of learning have given toa banana the name of Musa paradisiaca, which being interpreted meansthe Fruit of paradise, and to another banana they have given the nameMusa sapientum, which the sapient know means the Fruit of knowledge.Less evidence has served well enough to burn heretics at the stake.
A BUNCH OF BANANAS
A BUNCH OF BANANAS
Man has carried this gigantic herb to every fertile spot in abelt that girdles the waist of the globe—a girdle that is fourthousand miles and more in width. Millions uncounted have looked toit for the chief of their diet, as other millions have looked tothe cereals. And to this hour puling babes and doddering ancientsare fed with the fruit in all its stages and conditions,[4]
[5] green or over-ripe, raw orroasted, baked or fried, liquid or dried. At