A NEW BANANA.

Auckland Star, Volume LXVI, Issue 250, 22 October 1935, Page 6

A NEW BANANA.

The banana is one of the few fruits to resist the onset of the canning industry—perhaps because it is bo easy to cat out of its own skin. There is nothing hard in it to swallow by mistake or to stub one's tootli 011. Living far from the ancestral home of the banana (says an English commentator), one is apt to forget that this convenient secdlessness is not altogether natural to it. In fact it has not been obtained without a certain sacrifice. Two Trinidad scientists at Ihe Imperial Botanical Conference in London described experiments which had been carried 011 with a view to finding a possible substitute for the Gros Michel, which is the staple West Indian fruit. It is not that the Gros Michel was in danger of falling from popular favour. It has all the virtues that a banana

can have, and only one failing—it is chronically susceptible to Panama disease. The Imperial' College of Tropical Agriculture at Trinidad decided to see whether it would be possible to strengthen the Gros Michel against disease by introducing new blood. Strains of wild banana were crossed with it. The desired hardiness was attained, but at what a cost! For the new variety had pips. Worse still, the pips were occasional. One could not rely on their being there, like the stone of a cherry. They are described by the experimenters as "hard pebble-like structures on which the most avid banana consumer would not desire to engage his dentures more than once." This hybrid was therefore ruled out. Later experiments have produced a more promising variety, which shares the wild fruit's immunity from disease and the Gros Michel's immunity from pil«. It has oil]}' one fault; it is rather short. It is expected to grow up in time, and the experimenters hope that it will prove a worthy successor to the Gros Michel.