the nutritive matter of the banana cannot at all be compared to that of wheat, or even of potatoes. At the same time, a much greater number of individuals may be supported upon the produce of a piece of ground planted with bananas, compared with a piece of the same size in Europe growing wheat. Humboldt estimates the proportion as twenty-five to one; and he illustrates the fact by remarking that a European, newly arrived in the torrid zone, is struck with nothing so much as the extreme smallness of the spots under cultivation round a cabin which contains a numerous family of Indians.

The ripe fruit of the banana is preserved, like the fig, by being dried in the sun. This dried banana is an agreeable and healthy aliment. Meal is extracted from the fruit, by cutting it in slices, drying it in the sun, and then pounding it.

The facility with which the banana can be cultivated has doubtless contributed to arrest the progress of improvement in tropical regions. In the new continent civilization first commenced on the mountains, in a soil of inferior fertility. Necessity awakens industry, and industry calls forth the intellectual powers of the human race. When these are developed, man does not sit in a cabin, gathering the fruits of his little patch of bananas, asking no greater luxuries, and proposing no higher ends of life than to eat and to sleep. He subdues to his use all the treasures of the earth by his labour and his skill ;— and he carries his industry forward to its utmost limits, by the consideration that he has active duties to perform. The idleness of the poor Indian keeps him, where he has been for ages, little elevated above the inferior animal;-the industry of the European, under his colder skies, and with a less fertile soil, has surrounded him with all the blessings of society

its comforts, its affections, its virtues, and its intellectual riches.

In a very interesting and instructive paper by Mr. John Lindley, On the Tropical Fruits likely to be worth cultivating in England*,' it is stated, upon the authority of Mr. Crawford, that some of the varieties of the banana possess an exquisite flavour, surpassing the finest pear; and that others in the East Indies have been compared to an excellent reinette apple, after its sweetness has been condensed by keeping through the winter. Of these varieties there are so many, that they would be as difficult to describe as the sorts of apples and pears of Europe. The banana has frequently produced its bunches of yellow fruit in hothouses in this kingdom; particularly at Wynnstay, the seat of Sir W. W. Wynn; and at Messrs. Loddiges', at Hackney: and, according to Mr. Lindley," it appears probable that there will be as little difficulty in ripening the fruit, as that of any tropical tree whatever."

THE TAMARIND-Tamarindus Indica.

The tamarind-tree is a native both of the East Indies and of tropical America, and probably also of Arabia and some parts of Africa. It was very early introduced into this country; for Gerarde, whose Herbal was published in 1633, makes mention of it as growing here. It does not often flower in England, though it has done so in the Royal Gardens at Kew. It is, however, a common ornament of our hothouses. Where it is a native, it grows to be a large tree, and affords excellent timber-heavy, firm, hard, and durable. The stem is large, covered with brown bark, and divides into many branches; the

* Hort. Trans. vol. v.

The Tamarind-(Tamarindus indica.)

leaves are not unlike those of the mountain ash, only they are of a brighter green, and the leafets are closer to the mid-rib. The leaflets are small, but the number in a leaf (sixteen or eighteen pairs in a leaf, with an odd one at the extremity) give the tree a very light and elegant appearance. The flowers come out from the sides of the branches in loose bunches, and are followed by the pods, of which there are generally about five or six on a bunch. The pods of the West India tamarinds are, on an average, about three inches long, and contain about three seeds; those from the East are about double the size.

The pulp, in which the seeds of the tamarind are inclosed, contains more acid than any other vegetable substance, in a natural state, with which we are acquainted; and therefore it is used both for sharpening food and drink; and for medicinal purposes. Niebuhr says, the tamarind is equally useful and agreeable. It has a pulp of a vinous taste, of which a wholesome refreshing liquor is prepared; its shade shelters houses from the torrid heat of the sun; and

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its fine figure greatly adorns the scenery of the country." Its refreshing properties has given it a place in our poetry:

"The damsel from the tamarind-tree

Had pluck'd its acid fruit,

And steep'd it in water long;

And whoso drank of the cooling draught,

He would not wish for wine*."

Mandelslo, an old traveller, says, that as soon as the sun is set the leaves of the tamarind close up the fruit to preserve it from the dew, and open as soon as that luminary appears again:

""Tis the cool evening hour:

The tamarind, from the dew

Sheathes its young fruit, yet greent."

The East India tamarinds are preserved without sugar, and therefore they are the best for medicinal use. About forty tons of tamarinds are annually imported into Great Britain.

THE GUAVA-Psidium pyriferum.

The botanists enumerate eight or nine species of the guava, some of them natives of the East Indies, and other parts of Asia; some of the West Indies; + Ibid.

*Thalaba.

and others, among which are the kinds most valued as fruit, common to both continents.

The white Guava (Psidium pyriferum) is the best, and also the most abundant in the West Indies. When wild, the white guava is a shrub rather than a tree, as it seldom exceeds eight or nine feet in height; but, when introduced into gardens, it attains the size of an ordinary apple-tree, with a trunk about six feet high, and six inches in diameter. The wood is very hard and tough; the leaves are from two to three inches long, and grow in pairs opposite each other; the flower is white, and has a very agreeable flavour; the fruit is rather bigger than a hen's egg, of a sulphureous yellow, very smooth, and has a peculiar smell; it is covered with a rind of some thickness, within which are the seeds, contained in a pulp without any shell. The pulp is flesh-coloured, sweet, aromatic, and very grateful to the palate. It is used as a dessert fruit, and also preserved with sugar; and guava jelly is esteemed one of the finest conserves that come from the West Indies. By proper culture it may be brought to be a large and handsome tree; but when wild, it remains shrubby, and overruns the land

The red Guava (Psidium pomiferum) is a much larger tree than the white; the trunk often attaining the height of twenty feet. On poor soils, however, it is apt to be rugged and shrubby. The leaves are of a light green; the flowers white; the fruit shaped like a pomegranate, and having an agreeable odour when ripe. As a fruit, however, many of the authorities represent it as being very much inferior to the white guava: but it is probable that they have found it in the wild state, for it appears to be much improved by culture.

The mountain guava, found in the woods of Jamaica, is not much esteemed as a fruit-tree; but it