the plantain-tree; a genus of the monocota order, belonging to the polygamia clas of plants. The most remarkable species are, 1. The paradisiaca, or plantain. 2. The musa sapientum, or banana-tree.
The first sort is cultivated in all the islands of the West Indies, where the fruit serves the Indians for bread; and some of the white people also prefer it to most other things, especially to the yams and cassava bread. The plant rises with a soft herbaceous stalk, 15 or 20 feet high; the lower part of the stalk is often as large as a man's thigh, diminishing gradually to the top, where the leaves come out on every side; these are often six feet long, and near two feet broad, with a strong fleshy midrib, and a great number of transverse veins running from the midrib to the borders. The leaves are thin and tender, so that where they are exposed to the open air, they are generally torn by the wind; for as they are large, the wind has great power against them: these leaves come out from the centre of the stalk, and are rolled up at their first appearance; but when they are advanced above the stalk, they expand and turn backward: as these leaves come up rolled in the manner before-mentioned, their advance upward is so quick, that their growth may almost be discerned by the naked eye; and if a fine line is drawn across, level with the top of the leaf, in an hour's time the leaf will be near an inch above it. When the plant is grown to its full height, the spikes of flowers will appear in the centre, which is often near four feet in length, and nods on one side. The flowers come out in bunches, those in the lower part of the spike being the largest, the others diminish in their size upward; each of these bunches is covered with a path or sheath of a fine purple colour, which drops off when the flowers open. The upper part of the spike is made up of male or barren flowers, which are not succeeded by fruit, but fall off with their covers. The fruit of this is eight or nine inches long, and above an inch diameter, a little incurved, and has three angles; it is at first green, but when ripe of a pale-yellow colour. The skin is tough, and within is a soft pulp of a luscious sweet flavour. The spikes of fruit are often so large as to weigh upwards of 40 lbs. The fruit of this sort is generally cut before it is ripe, roasted in the embers, and eaten instead of bread. The leaves are used for napkins and table-cloths, and are food for hogs.
The second sort differs from the first, in having its stalks marked with dark purple stripes and spots. The fruit is shorter, straighter, and rounder; the pulp is softer, and of a more luscious taste; so is generally eaten by way of dessert, and seldom used in the same way as the plantain, therefore is not cultivated in such plenty.
Both these plants were carried to the West Indies from the Canary Islands, to which place it is believed they were carried from Guinea, where they grow naturally. They are also cultivated in Egypt, and in most other hot countries, where they grow to perfection in about 10 months, from their first planting to the ripening of their fruit: when their stalks are cut down, there will several suckers come up from the root, which in six or eight months will produce fruit; so that by cutting down the stalks at different times, there is a constant succession of fruit all the year.
In Europe there are some of these plants preserved in the gardens of curious persons, who have hot-houses spacious enough for their reception, in many of which they have ripened their fruit very well; but as they grow very tall, and their leaves are large, they require more room in the stove than most people care to allow them. They are propagated by suckers, which come from the roots of those plants which have fruited; and many times the younger plants, when they are stunted in growth, will put out suckers; these should be carefully taken off, preserving some fibres to their roots, and planted in pots filled with light rich earth, and plunged into the tan-bed in the stove: they may be taken off any time in summer; and it is best to take them off when young, because if their roots are grown large, they do not put out new fibres too soon; and when the thick part of the root is cut in taking them off, the plants often rot.
During the summer-season these plants must be plentifully watered; for the surface of their leaves being large, there is a great consumption of moisture by perspiration in hot weather; but in the winter they must be watered more sparingly, though at that season they must be often refreshed, but it must not be given them in such quantities.
The pots in which these plants are placed should be large, in proportion to the size of the plants; for their roots generally extend pretty far, and the earth should be rich and light. The degree of heat with which these plants thrive best, is much the same with the anana or pine-apple, in which Mr Miller had many of these plants produce their fruit in perfection, and they were near 20 feet high.
The most sure method to have these plants fruit in Britain is, after they have grown some time in pots, so as to have made good roots, to shake them out of the pots with the ball of earth to their roots, and plant them into the tan-bed in the stove, observing to lay a little old tan near their roots for their fibres to strike into; and in a few months the roots will extend themselves many feet each way in the bark; and these plants will thrive a great deal faster than those which are confined in pots or tubs. When the bark-bed wants to be renewed with fresh tan, there should be great care taken of the roots of the plants, not to cut or break them, as also to leave a large quantity of the old tan about them; because if the new tan is laid too near them, it will scorch their roots, and injure them. If the plants push out their flower-stems in the spring, there will be hopes of their perfecting their fruit; but when they come out late in the year, the plants will sometimes decay before the fruit is ripe. stoves in which they are placed should be at least 20 feet in height, otherwise there will not be room for their leaves to expand; for when the plants are in vigour, the leaves are often eight feet in length, and near three feet broad; so that if the stems grow to be 14 feet to the division of the leaves, and the house is not 20 feet high, the leaves will be cramped, which will retard the growth of the plant: besides, when the leaves are bent against the glass, there will be danger of their breaking them when they are growing vigorously; for, in one night, the stems of such bent leaves have been known to force through the glass, and by the next morning were advanced two or three inches above it.
The fruit of the banana-tree is four or five inches long, of the size and shape of a middling cucumber, and of a high, grateful flavour; the leaves are two yards long, and a foot broad in the middle; they join to the top of the body of the tree, and frequently contain in their cavities a great quantity of water, which runs out, upon a small incision being made into the tree, at the junction of the leaves. Bananas grow in great bunches, that weigh a dozen pounds and upwards. The body of the tree is so porous, as not to merit the name of wood; the tree is only perennial by its roots, and dies down to the ground every autumn.
When the natives of the West Indies, says Labat, undertake a voyage, they make provision of a paste of banana; which, in case of need, serves them for nourishment and drink: for this purpose, they take ripe bananas, and, having squeezed them thro' a fine sieve, form the solid fruit into small loaves, which are dried in the sun or in hot ashes, after being previously wrapped up in the leaves of Indian flowering-reed. When they would make use of this paste, they dissolve it in water, which is very easily done; and the liquor, thereby rendered thick, has an agreeable acid taste imparted to it, which makes it both refreshing and nourishing.
The banana is greatly esteemed, and even venerated, by the natives of Madeira, who term it the forbidden fruit, and reckon it a crime almost inexpiable to cut it with a knife; because, after dissection, it exhibits, as they pretend, a similitude of our Saviour's crucifixion; and to cut the fruit open with a knife, is, in their apprehension, to wound his sacred image.
Some authors have imagined, that the banana-tree was that of the leaves of which our first parents made themselves aprons in Paradise. The sacred text, indeed, calls the leaves employed for that purpose fig-leaves; and Milton, in a most beautiful but erroneous description, affirms the bearded or Bengal fig to have been the tree alluded to. But, besides that the fruit of the banana is often by the most ancients authors called a fig, its leaves, by reason of their great size and solidity, were much more proper for a veil or covering than those of the Bengal fig, which are seldom above six or eight inches long and three broad. On the other hand, the banana leaves being three, four, and five feet long, and proportionally broad, could not fail to be pitched upon in preference to all others; especially as they might be easily joined, or sewed together, with the numerous thread-like filaments, that may, with the utmost facility, be peeled from the body of this tree.
Vol. VII.
MUSÆUS, an ancient Greek poet, was, according to Plato and Diodorus Siculus, an Athenian, the son of Orpheus, and chief of the Eleusinian mysteries instituted at Athens in honour of Ceres; or, according to others, he was only the disciple of Orpheus; but, from the great resemblance which there was between his character and talents and those of his master, by giving a stronger outline to the figure he was called his son, as those were styled the children of Apollo who cultivated the arts of which he was the tutelar god.
Musæus is allowed to have been one of the first poets who versified the oracles. He is placed in the Arundelian marbles, epoch 15. 1426 B.C. at which time his hymns are there said to have been received in the celebration of the Eleusinian mysteries. Laertius tells us, that Musæus not only composed a theogony, but formed a sphere for the use of his companions; yet as this honour is generally given to Chiron, it is more natural to suppose, with Sir Isaac Newton, that he enlarged it with the addition of several constellations after the conquest of the golden fleece. The sphere itself shews that it was delineated after the Argonautic expedition, which is described in the asterisms, together with several other more ancient histories of the Greeks, and without any thing later; for the ship Argo was the first long vessel which they had built: hitherto they had used round ships of burden, and kept within sight of the shore; but now, by the dictates of the oracle, and consent of the princes of Greece, the flower of that country sail rapidly thro' the deep, and guide their ship by the stars.
Musæus is celebrated by Virgil in the character of hierophant, or priest of Ceres, at the head of the most illustrious mortals who have merited a place in Elysium. Here he is made the conductor of Æneas to the recess where he meets the shade of his father Anchises.
A hill near the citadel of Athens was called Musæum, according to Pausanias, from Musæus, who used to retire thither to meditate and compose his religious hymns; at which place he was afterwards buried. The works which went under his name, like those of Orpheus, were by many attributed to Onomacritus. Nothing remains of this poet now, nor were any of his writings extant in the time of Pausanias, except a hymn to Ceres, which he made for the Lycomides. And as these hymns were likewise set to music, and sung in the mysteries by Musæus himself in the character of priest, he thence perhaps acquired from future times the title of musician as well as of poet; the performance of sacred music being probably at first confined to the priesthood in these celebrations, as it had been before in Egypt, whence they originated. However, he is not enumerated among ancient musicians by Plutarch; nor does it appear that he merited the title of son and successor to Orpheus for his musical abilities, so much as for his poetry, piety, and profound knowledge in religious mysteries.