great diminution in the cultivation of the plantain has been
occasioned in British Guiana by this blight or disease, which first
made its destructive appearance in Essequibo, upwards of thirty years
ago, where its ravages increased with such fatal intensity as to
render the profitable growth of the plant almost hopeless; and up to
this hour no one has been able to discover the immediate or remote
cause of this extraordinary vegetable endemic; whether arising from
the action of insects among the sheathes of the petioles of the
leaves, or in the soil, or from organic decay of the plant, remains
without solution. The last-named cause seems to be rejected, by the
fact that the fructification of the plant is as healthy and abundant
in parts of the colony where the blight does not prevail, both in
number and size of the fruit upon the spike, as at any former period.
On the east coast of Demerara, both the plantain and banana have been
grown for more than twenty years upon the same land, without any
attack of the disease, and without any extraneous manure or even lime
having been applied, and the plants still exhibit great luxuriance,
and produce their former weight of fruit.

The foliage of the plantain affords food and bedding, and is used for
thatch, making paper, and basket making; and from its petioles is
obtained a fine and durable thread. The tops of the young plants are
eaten as a delicate vegetable; the fermented juice of the trunk
produces an agreeable wine.

The abundance and excellence of the nutritive food which the plants of
this valuable genus supply are well known; but of the numerous uses to
which they are applied I may mention, the following:--

The fruit is served up both raw and stewed; slices fried are also
considered a delicacy. Plantains are sometimes boiled and eaten with
salt meat, and pounded and made into puddings, and used in various
other ways. In their ripe state these fruits contain much starchy
matter. From their spurious stems, the fibres of the spiral vessels
may be pulled out in such quantity as to be used for tinder. _M.
textilis_ yields a fibre which is used in India in the manufacture of
fine muslins, and the coarser woody tissue is exported in large
quantities from Manila, under the name of white rope or Manila hemp.
Horses, cattle, swine, and other domestic animals are fed upon the
fruit, leaves, and succulent trunks.

The same extent of ground which in wheat would only maintain two