Under the heading of "Banana," all kinds of plantains will also be included, as they belong to one and the same family. The members of this family of plants are all tropical, and produce the most typical and best known tropical fruits.

The rank luxuriance of the growth of this class of fruits, their handsome foliage, their productiveness, their high economic value as food, and their universal distribution throughout the tropics, all combine to place them in a premier position. As a food it is unequalled amongst fruits, as no matter whether it is used green as a vegetable, ripe as a fruit, dried and ground into flour, or preserved in any other way, it is one of the most wholesome and nutritious of foods for human consumption. It is a staple article of diet in all tropical countries, and the stems of several varieties make an excellent food for all kinds of stock.

In Queensland, the culture of bananas is confined to the frostless belts of the eastern seaboard, as it is a plant that is extremely susceptible to cold, and is injured by the lightest frosts. It is grown in favourable locations in the South, where it produces excellent fruit, but its cultivation is much greater in the North, where the rainfall is heavier and the average annual temperature greater. In the Southern part of the State its cultivation is entirely in the hands of white growers, who have been growing it on suitable soil in suitable localities for the past fifty years or even more. I recently saw an old plantation that was set out over twenty years ago, and the present plants are still strong and healthy, and bearing good bunches of well-filled fruit, so that there is no question as to the suitability of the soil or climate. Bananas do best on rich scrub land, and it is no detriment to their growth if it is more or less covered with stones as long as there is sufficient soil to set the young plants. Shelter from heavy or cold winds is an advantage, and the plants thrive better under these conditions than when planted in more exposed positions. Bananas are frequently the first crop planted in newly burnt off scrub land, as they do not require any special preparation of such land, and the large amount of ash and partially burnt and decomposed vegetable mould provide an ample supply of food for the plants' use. Bananas are rank feeders, so that this abundance of available plant food causes a rapid growth, fine plants, and correspondingly large bunches of fruit. Though newly burnt off scrub land is the best for this fruit, it can be grown successfully in land that has been under cultivation for many years, provided that the land is rich enough naturally, or its fertility is maintained by judicious green and other manuring. In newly burnt off scrub land all that is necessary is, to dig holes 15 to 18 inches in diameter, and about 2 feet deep, set the young plants in it, and partly fill in the hole with good top soil. The young plant, which consists of a sucker taken from an older plant, will soon take root and grow rapidly under favourable conditions, producing its first bunch in from ten to twelve months after planting. At the same time that it is producing its first bunch it will send up two or more suckers at the base of the parent plant, and these in turn will bear fruit, and so on. After bearing, the stalk that has produced the bunch of fruit is cut down; if this is not done it will die down, as its work has been completed, and other suckers take its place. Too many suckers should not be allowed to grow or the plants will become too crowded, and be consequently stunted and produce small bunches. All the cultivation that is necessary is the keeping down of weed growth, and this, once the plants occupy the whole of the land, is not a hard matter. A plantation is at its best when about three years old, but remains profitable for six years or longer; in fact, there are many plantations still bearing good fruit that have been planted from twelve to twenty years. Small-growing or dwarf kinds, such as the Cavendish variety, are planted at from 12 to 16 feet apart each way, but large-growing bananas, such as the Sugar and Lady's Finger, require from 20 to 25 feet apart each way, as do the stronger-growing varieties of plantain. Plantains are not grown to any extent in Queensland, and our principal varieties are those already mentioned, the Cavendish variety greatly predominating. In the North, the cultivation of this latter variety is carried out on an extensive scale, principally by Chinese gardeners, who send the bulk of their produce to the Southern States of the Commonwealth. The industry supports a large number of persons other than the actual producers of the fruit, and forms one of our principal articles of export from the North. As many as 20,000 or more large bunches of bananas frequently leave by a single steamer for the South, and the bringing of this quantity to the port of shipment gives employment to a number of men on tram lines and small coastal steamers. The shipment of a heavy cargo of bananas presents a very busy scene that is not soon forgotten, the thousands of bunches of fruit that are either piled up on the wharf or that are being unloaded from railway trucks, small steamers or sometimes Chinese junks, forming such a mass of fruit that one often wonders how it is possible to consume it all before it becomes over-ripe. Still, it is consumed, or, at any rate, the greater portion of it is, as it is the universal fruit of the less wealthy portion of the community, the price at which it can be sold being so low that it is within the reach of everyone. A banana garden in full bearing is a very pretty sight, the thousands of plants, each with their one or more bunches of fruit, as, where there are several stems it is not at all uncommon to find two or more bunches of fruit in different states of development on the same plant, forming a mass of vegetation that must be seen to be appreciated. This is the case even with dwarf-growing kinds, but with strong-growing varieties, such as the Lady's Finger, the growth is so excessive that the wonder is, how the soil can support it.