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110. Plants of the Hot Belt.

Which of the little people whom we have visited
live near the equator?

    
   
 

NUTMEG

(CINNAMON

Spices.

What do the people of Java eat? What plants
grow near the home of our Malay friends ?

Where is Tibbws home? What plants supply
food to the people of the Kongo basin?

What have you learned about the selvas? What
large lily grows in the shallow water of the Amazon
river? Why is it so hard to travel in the selvas ?

What do you know about the seasons of the hot belt?

The Aot belt includes parts of the basins of
the Amazon, Nile and Kongo rivers, the pen-
insulas of southern Asia, and the islands
southeast of Asia.

This belt has a hot or a warm season all
the year, with plenty of rain. The. hot belt
is very rich in plant life.

Among the chief food plants are ie plan-
tain, breadfruit, date and cocoanut.

‘spice ?

PLANTS OF THE HOT BELT.

The plantain is very much like the banana.

The banana often grows to the height, of
twenty feet, with leaves ten feet in length.
Several clusters of fruit grow on each plant.

In hot lands the banana is widely used as
food. On many islands of the Pacific it is the
chief food of the natives.

Breadfruit grows on a tree that has large
glossy leaves. The fruit is about as large as a
melon. It is picked just before it is ripe, and
is often cooked by baking. This useful fruit
tastes like boiled potatoes and sweet milk.

The breadfruit is also cut into slices and
dried inthe sun. The slices are then baked, or
they are ground to flour and made into bread.

The islands southeast of Asia are very rich
in spices. Among these are pepper, cloves,

nutmeg and cinnamon.

Cloves grow on trees. The buds are picked when
they turn red. They are then dried and sent to
market. Cloves have a hot, biting taste.

Cinnamon is the dried bark of a kind of small tree.
The outer bark
is taken off, and
only the inner
bark is dried for
market. Do you
like this fragrant

Nutmegs are
taken fromalittle
fruit that grows
on a large tree.
The seed of this
fruit is taken out
and dried for sev-
eral weeks. It
is then cracked
open and out
comes a hard
kernel.

This kernel is
the nutmeg which is often grated int Badlings
and pies.

Pepper berries grow in long clusters on a climb-
ing shrub or vine. ‘The berries are dried in the sun.

 

 

 

Banana Plant.