PLANTAIN, Banana, Musa Paradisiaca.
Mauz, . . . . ARAB. Pisang, . . . . MALAY.
Biyu, BALI. Vellakai, Pesang, MALEAL.
Ng-byet-praw, BURL Mama, . . . . PERS.
Nep-yan, . . „ Kehl kang, . . Sisal?.
Manz, Kayla, . HIND. Valie pallam, . • . TAIL Cadang, JAV Ariti pandu, . . . TEL.
Plantain is the name applied to various species of the genus Musa, of which, in the East Indies, the best known are M. paradisiaca, which yields the edible plantain or banana, and M. textilia, the Manilla hemp plant. The bananas appear to be natives of the southern portion of the Asiatic con tinetit (R. Brown, But. of Congo, into 51). Trans planted at an Unknown epoch nto the Indian Archipelago and Africa, they have since spread also into the new world, and in general into all intertropical countries, sometimes before the arrival of Europeans. Humboldt put a very high value on this fruit as an article of food. Accord I ing to him, it affords, in a given extent of ground, 1 forty-fonr times more nutritive matter than the potato, and 133 times more thou wheat. In the East Indies it is only used as a (leaftert. In Jamaica, Demerara, 'Trinidad, and other colonies, how ever, many thousand acres are planted with the banana. The vegetation is so rapid, that if a line of thread be drawn across and on a level with the to of one of the leaves when it begins to expand, it will be seen in the course of an hour to have grown nearly an inch. The fruit, when ripe, is of a pale-yellow, from 2 or 3 inches to a foot in length, and 2 inches thick, and is produced in bunches weighing 40 lbs. and upwanls. In the Straits Settlements, the most approved varieties are the royal plantain, which fruits in eight months ; one which bears in a year, the milk plantain, time downy plantain, and the golden plantain or banana. A variety termed Guindy was imported from Madras, where it was in great esteem. It had this advantage over the other kinds, that it could be stewed down like an apple. The Malays allege that they can produce new varieties by planting three shoots of different sorts together, and by cutting the shoots down to the ground three successive times, when they have reached the height of 9 or 10 inches. In
some districts of Mexico, the fruit is dried in the sun, and in this state forms a considerable article of internal commerce, under the name of plantado pasado. When dried and reduced to the state of meal, it cannot, like wheat-flour, be manufac tured into macaroni or vermicelli, or at least the macaroni made from it falls to powder when put into hot water. The fresh plantain, however, when boiled whole, forms a pretty dense firm mass, of greater consistency and toughness than the potato. The mass, beaten in a mortar, con stitutes the ' foo-foo ' of the Negroes. Plantain meal cannot be got into this state unless by mix ing it up with water to form a stiff dough, and then boiling it in shapes or bound in cloths.
In Pegu there are scarcely any good plantains to be had, owing to the Burmese habit of only eating green fruit, and their total indifference to the finer qualities of flavour. The great use of all fruit with the Burmese is to serve as an addition to their curry, for which purpose one kind of plantain is just as good as another. The plantain or banana holds the same place in Tenas scrim that the apple does in England and the i United States. It is used as a vegetable as well as an article for the dessert, the great proportion being eaten with rice and meat in the place of i potatoes. Like the mango, the Musa is indigenous in Tenasserim, but the wild fruit is too full of seeds to be eatable. A species grows wild in Tenas scrim jungles, and is rather an ornantental plant, which is all that it has to recommend it. Unlike the common plantain, it never throws up shoots from its roots. The plantain and banana embrace many varieties. Mr. Mason had the Burman names of twenty-five before bins. ' Thenumerous varieties,' writes Voigt, ' we have in vain tried to put in some order. Tho attempt made for this purpose, in Schultens, appears to us to have only increased the confusion.