Two gigantic leaves grow out from the top, ten feet long and two feet
broad. They are so very thin and tender that a light wind splits them
into ribbons.
From the center of the leaves a very strong stalk rises up, which
supports the cluster of bananas. There are sometimes over one hundred
bananas to a single stalk.
A cluster of ripe bananas will weigh from sixty to seventy pounds, and
represents a large amount of food. When a stalk has produced and ripened
its fruit, it begins to wither and soon dies.
In a very short time, however, new sprouts spring up from the old root,
and ere long the native has another cluster. So rapidly do they follow
each other, that one cluster is scarcely consumed before another one is
ready to ripen.
Bananas ripened on the stalk will not bear transportation to any great
distance; therefore, when selected for export, the clusters are cut off
while the bananas are very green.
Another valuable fruit of the tropics is the date. This fruit grows on a
tree called the date-palm, that is found in both Asia and Africa.
The date-palm is a majestic tree, rising to the height of sixty feet or
more, without branches, and with a trunk of uniform thickness throughout
its entire length.
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