364 SKETCH OF THE VEGETATION OF 
son, following Wafer and Gumilla, classes the Plantain among the 
native productions of America. It was found by the latter two authors 
far in the interior, and in the hands of Indian tribes who had little 
or no communication with the Creoles. But as both Wafer and 
Gumilla travelled a number of years after Columbus’s discovery, and 
as we know that many plants, even some less useful than the different 
Musas, were disseminated with great rapidity over the territories of the 
New World, the proofs appear insufficient. Prescott seems to look 
upon the Plantain as introduced, but thinks it is not mentioned in the 
works of Hernandez. Yet Hernandez does mention the Plantain ; he 
even informs us that it was brought to Mexico from foreign parts, and 
in his Hist. Plant. Nov. Hisp. Libr. vol. iii. p. 172, has the following 
account :—‘ Arbor est mediocris, familiaris calidis regionibus hujus 
Nove Hispanie, vocatur a quibusdam recentiorum Musa. Folia 
sunt valde longa et lata, adeo ut hominis superent sæpenumero 
magnitudinem : fructus racematim dependent incredibili numero 
et magnitudine, cucumerum crassorum et brevium forma, dulces, 
molles atque temperiei proximi, nec ingrati nutrimenti.  Eduntur 
hi erudi, assive ex vino, atque ita sunt gustui jucundigris. Differt 
fructus magnitudine, et quo minores sunt, eo salubriores et sua- 
viores. Advenam esse aiunt huic Nove Hispanie atque translatam 
. ab ZEthiopibus aut Orientalibus. Indiis, quorum est alumna. Caulis et 
radix, quze fibrata est, multis constant membranis, saporis expertibus 
et odoris, lubricis et frigescentibus, ex quo facile quis conjiciat, quibus 
morbis possint esse utiles." Conclusive as is this statement, both as 
regards the identity of the plant, and its native country, still some may 
yet entertain doubts, as Hernandez wrote not at the time of the dis- 
covery of America, but towards the end of the sixteenth century. There 
is, however, another proof that the Plantain was introduced. Neither 
the Quichua nor the Aztec, the two most refined and widely diffused 
of all American languages, nor indeed any other indigenous tongue of 
the New World, possesses a vernacular name for this plant. Even Her- 
nandez, who collected the Aztec names with the utmost care, could 
find none, and was compelled to place the Plantain near the Quauh- 
z wilotl (Parmentiera edulis, DC.), and call it Quauhzilotl altera; the 
. cucumber-like fruit of the Parmentiera Moda to him to form the 
T. closest. approach to that of the Plantain. 
. The esculent roots under cultivation are: Nname CDioscorén alata, 
