PLANTAIN, use paearlisaica, a most important food•plant of tropical countries, and one of the largest of herbaceous plants, belongs to the natural order 770.18aCia (q.v.), and is a native of the East Indies, where numberless varieties of it have been cultivated for thong:mils of years. It is now diffused over all the tropical and subtropical regions ef the globe. It must have been carried to America soon after or during the days of Columbus, for its fruit was a principal article of food there in the first half of the 16th c.; hut there is nothing to support the conjecture of Humboldt that there may be differ ent species cultivated under the name of plantain, and some of them natives of America. The plaintain is now. however, cultivated to the furthest depths of the primeval Ameri can forests, as7Tompanies the Indians in their frequent changes of residence, forms the wealth of many occupiers of land in the vicinity of great towns, where large plantations of it are made, and is a true staff of life to the population of all colors and classes in tropical countries. In many regions it is the principal article of food.
In the genus muses there arise from the midst of the leaves—or apparently from the top of the stem, the sheathing bases of the leaves forming a tree-like false stem—stalks which bear great spikes of flowers, each inclosed in a large bract or spathe; the flowers, and afterwards the fruit, are arranged in clusters or almost in whorls on the stalk; the flowers have a perianth of six segments, five of which cohere as a tube slit at the back, and the sixth is small and concave; there are six stamens, one or more of them imperfect ; the gcrmen is inferior, 3-celled, with two rows of ovules in each cell: the fruit is fleshy, and has many seeds imbedded in its pulp. The. name mum is from the Arabic inoz, a plantain; the plantain seems to be described by Pliny under the name pale, a name prob ably derived from an eastern root, from which also comes the name plantain. The specific name paradisaica alludes either to a fancy that the plantain was the forbidden fruit of Eden, or to a legend that the aprons which our first parents made for themselves were of plantain leaves. • The stem of the plantain is usually 15 or 20 ft. high, although there are varieties hay hr a stern of only 6 feet. The leaves are very large, the blade being sometimes 10 ft, ion; and three ft. broad, undivided, of a beautifashining green; the midrib strong and fleshy. The fruit is oblong, varying from its usual long shape to an almost spherical one, obscurely angular, 8 in, to a foot long in the varieties commonly know* by the name plantain, of which the fruit is usually cooked or prepared in some way in order to be eaten, and very often forms a substitute for bread; whilst the smaller fruited varieties, of which the fruit is eaten raw, are generally known by the name banana (q.v.), these names, however, being somewhat variously used.
The plantain is generally propagated by suckers; and a sucker attains maturity in about eight months or a year after being planted. The stem is cut down after fruiting, but the plantation does not require renewal for 15 or 20 years. Plantains ought to be at
least 10 ft. apart in plantations of them, or 6 ft. in single rows around fields or gardens. The plantain has been sometimes cultivated with success in hot-houses.
With the exception of two or three palms, it would not be easy to name, in the whole vegetable kingdom, any plant which is applied to a greater number of uses than the plan tain. The fruit- is sometimes eaten raw, although more generally—except that of the banana—boiled or roasted, and variously prepared. It is both farinaceous and sac charine. In most of the varieties it has a sweetish taste, in some it is mealy, and in sonic it is sub-acid or austere. It is as much used before being perfectly ripe as when it is so. In the West Indies the plaintain boiled and Beaten in a mortar is a common food of the negroes. Plantains baked in their skins, or fried in slices with butter and powdered over with sugar, are favorite dishes in some tropical countries. They are preserved by drying in the sun or in ovens, and pressed into masses, in which state they keep for years, and furnish a wholesome article of food. The unripe fruit, peeled, sliced, dried, and pow dered, is called P. meal, cud in Guiana conqicin-tag; it is whitish with dark-red specks, a fragrance like orris-root, and a taste like wheat-flour; and is made into excellent and nourishing dishes. A good and wholesome starch is obtained from the plantain by rasp ing and washing.—A decoction of the fruit is a common beverage, and a kind of wine is obtained from it by fermentation.—The top of the stalk is a good boiled vegetable.—The leaves are much used for packing, and many other purposes; the fiber of their stalks Li used for textile purposes and for cordage, and it is probable that it might be used for paper-making; but hitherto the leaves and stems of plantains have been generally burned or left to rot.
So great is the food produce of the plantain, that, according to Humboldt's calcula tion, it is to that of the potato as 4-4 to 1, and to that of wheat as 133 to 1. The plantain requires little attention.
The name plantain is frequently extended to the whole genus muse. Wild species, with austere fruit, are found in many parts of the east. One ascends the Himalayas to an elevation of 6,500 feet. A species found in the South sea islands (H. troglndytarum) is remarkable for bearing its clusters of fruit erect, not pendent like the other species. Its fruit is eatable, as is that of X. Cavendishil and of M. Minerva's, species or varieties smaller than the common plantain.—The mesa, which is extensively cultivated in the Philippine islands for its fiber, abase or Natalia hemp, is very similar to the common plantain, but has a green, hard, and austere fruit. It is generally cut when about a year and a half old, before flowering. The outer layers of the stein yield the coarsest fiber; that of the inner is so fine that a garment made bf it may be inclosed in the hollow of the hand.— The young stems of M. ensete, the ENSETE of Abyssinia, are used in that country as a boiled esculent.