How Bananas Are Grown in Tropical Countries

Seventh-Day Adventist Missionary Society · Oakland, California · Jan 31, 1884

FromThe Signs of the Times, Vol. 10, No. 5

How Bananas Are Grown in Tropical Countries

BANANAS.—A little girl who has noticed the absence of seeds in bananas, wishes to know how the fruit is grown. From cuttings or shoots, which first send up two leaves rolled tightly together until the green roll is two or three feet high, when the blades unfold. At the end of nine months a purple bud appears in the center, followed by yellow blossoms which mature to fruit, growing in bunches of several hundred. The plant dies down as soon as the fruit is formed, but the root-stalk soon begins to send up new leaves again. Bananas are found in all tropical countries; a piece of ground of a size to grow wheat enough to feed one man, will, if planted with bananas, raise fruit enough for twenty-five.—N. Y. Evangelist.