cker than those of the _Platano de la Isla_,
but they are so full that they burst when quite ripe. They are straight
and cylindrical in form, as they grow on the stem at some distance one
from the other. They are of a bright yellow color, but near the stem
spotted with black. The edible part is whiter and softer than that of
the _Platano de la Isla_, to which it is greatly superior in flavor and
aroma. The natives believe this fruit to be very unwholesome, and they
maintain that drinking brandy after eating Platanos Guineos causes
immediate death. This is, as my own often-repeated experiments have
shown, one of the deep-rooted, groundless prejudices to which the
Peruvians obstinately cling. On one of my excursions I had a controversy
on this subject with some persons who accompanied me. To prove how
unfounded their notions were, I ate some platanos, and then washing down
one poison by the other, I immediately swallowed a mouthful of brandy.
My Peruvian friends were filled with dismay. Addressing me alternately
in terms of compassion and reproach, they assured me I should never
return to Lima alive. After spending a very agreeable day, we all
arrived quite well in the evening at Lima. At parting, one of my
companions seriously observed that we should never see each other again.
Early next morning they anxiously called to inquire how I was, and
finding me in excellent health and spirits, they said:--"Ah! you see, an
_herege de gringo_ (a heretic of a foreigner) is quite of a different
nature from us." A piece of the Platano Guineo soaked in brandy retains
its color unchanged; but the rib-like fibres which connect the rind with
the pulp then become black, and imbibe a bitter taste.

The fruit of the third kind of platano, the _Platano Largo_, is from six
to eight inches long, rather narrow, and curved crescent-wise. The rind
is of a light straw color, and when the fruit is very ripe it has large
black spots. The edible part is of a whitish hue, harder and drier than
that of the two species already described; and its flavor its quite as
agreeable. Its fruit is less abundant than that of the Platano Guineo,
and it requires longer time to become fully ripe. A fourth kind, which
grows in the forest regions, I have never seen on the coast. It is the
_Platano Altahuillaca_. It bears at most from twenty to twenty-five
heads of fruit. The stem is more than two inches thick, and above an ell
long. The color of the husk is light yell