The Banana. By William Fawcett. (Duckworth and Co. 7e. 6d.
net.)—As Mr. Lewis Harcourt lately said in Parliament it was no small service to the poor of this country to have made the banana the common object of the coster's barrow." There are more delicious tropical fruits, indeed, but there is none which so readily lends itself to transport by sea. Fifty years ago the whole value of the fruit annually exported from Jamaica was only £728. To-day it is over a million and a half—mainly represented by bananas. In the excellent book now published, Mr. Fawcett—who has just retired from the poet of Director of Public Gardens and Plantations in Jamaica—tells us all that can be known about the banana. It is often stated that many of the large bananas sold in this country are not true bananas, but plantains. This is not the case, we learn. The best of all bananas is the red or "claret" variety, which is not so often seen here as the greenish-yellow banana, but has a much more delicate flavour.
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