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There is another kind of semi-fruit largely consumed in tropical countries ; this is the plantain, which, with its near relation the banana, forms the staple food of innumerable tribes in Asia, Africa, America, and the oceanic islands of the Atlantic and Pacific. The plantain and banana grow in immense clusters, often weighing from seventy to eighty pounds on a single plant, and they are so easily cultivated, that even the most savage races understand how to produce them. The banana is said to bear a crop every three months, so that a plantation of from thirty to forty roots will yield more than four thousand pounds of fruit. The banana is rather smaller than the plantain, but both varieties are now frequently seen in our fruiterers' shops. The taste resembles that of a mealy pear, with a little butter added; the banana is sometimes dried like the fig, and is then pounded and used as meal.* Perhaps we may include among those plants which serve both as fruit and vegetable the date palm, which yields a farinaceous substance resembling sago (which is the product of another species of palm), as well as the invaluable date, * A lady writing from South Africa says they found bananas growing wild with upwards of 100 pods in a bunch. 'TWIXT FRUIT AND VEGETABLE 213 which, both in its green and dried state, forms the staple food of the people wherever it grows. The failure of the crop means famine, and to cut down the date trees is the first act of an enemy. The dates we buy here are dried in the sun, or pressed into baskets before they are quite ripe, as the ripe fruit would not bear transport. The centre or crown of the date palm is sometimes eaten as a cabbage, but as this destroys the tree, it is only cut from sterile trees, and after the removal of this cabbage the sap rises, and palm wine or toddy flows from the cavity at the rate of about a gallon a day, continuing for nearly six weeks in diminishing quantities. From this palm-wine, arrack is made by distilla- tion, and a spirit is also obtained by soaking the dates in water, and afterwards distilling it, whilst the stalks are boiled and used as .food for cattle. A few years ago a company was formed for the manufacture of date coffee, which was made from the date stones roasted and ground, but this spurious coffee has now been nearly, if not quite, abandoned. That useful plant the rhubarb, may properly find a place in this chapter, for although chiefly used as a substitute for fruit, it is only the leaf stalk of a plant which came originally from the East, but which has apparently been cultivated in England since the latter part of the sixteenth century, and seems to grow yearly in popularity, as, when forced, it is attainable during the winter months when fruits are scarce, whilst the giant out-door leaf stalks are sold at a very cheap rate all through the summer and autumn, when it is largely used for puddings and tarts, and also for stewing, preserving, and wine-making. The far-famed legendary lotos must also find a place here. It is variously described as a lily, and as a shrub bearing a 214 OUR VIANDS