Miscellaneous. 2 1 3 



It is remarkable that the plantain and banana should be indigenous, 

 or at all events have been cultivated for ages both in the old and new- 

 world. Numerous South American travellers describe some one of 

 these plants as being indigenous articles of food among the natives, 

 thus showing (if the plantain and its variety be hybrids) a communi- 

 cation betw^een the tropics of America, Asia and Africa long before 

 the time of Columbus. The older writers on this colony consider the 

 plantain to be a native. Thus Hartsinck in his * History of Guiana,' 

 vol. i. p. 71, describes under the head of " description of wild trees" 

 the fruit of the plantain or wild banana tree as being eaten by the 

 Indians roasted or ripe, &c., while the banana is under the descrip- 

 tion of cultivated trees. Belin, * Description G^ographique de la 

 Guyane,' p. 49, in like manner describes the plantaine, or plantin, 

 as being a food used by the Indians, &c. It is remarkable that Sir 

 Robert Schomburgk likewise found a large species of edible plantain 

 far in the interior. It appears to me to be quite clear therefore that 

 the plantain is either a hybrid, or its power of procreation by seed 

 has been destroyed long ago by cultivation, and that it is not known 

 to exist anywhere in a perfect «tate ; in either of which cases, any 

 attempt to improve our present stock by the introduction of suckers 

 from elsewhere must be totally futile. I need scarcely remark, that 

 should the suppositions with regard to the hybridity of the plantain 

 be incorrect, and that in certain localities to us at present unknown 

 the plant matures its seed, the seedlings would require long cultiva- 

 tion by repeated transplantation of suckers to deprive the fruit of its 

 seed, or in other words, to render it edible. 



If the proposed introduction of plantain suckers from Matanzas, 

 Porto Rico, or other countries, be with the view of entirely substi- 

 tuting them for our present stock, and thus getting rid of the disease, 

 a very serious matter for consideration is presented to us, viz. Is the 

 disease hereditary or owing to imperfection in the plant itself, or is 

 it caused by unfit soil or imperfect tillage ? If it be hereditary, then 

 the only means left is totally to eradicate the present stock and to 

 introduce a new one. If, on the other hand, the disease be one of 

 locality, then the introduction of new plants would be merely expo- 

 sing them to the same cause of destruction. The cause of the disease 

 has been considered by some to be a species of beetle, which destroys 

 the root or finds its way into the body of the tree. This however 

 is a conjecture totally unsupported by any facts, the minutest in- 

 vestigation not disclosing the existence of any such animals in the 

 diseased plantain tree, or at least in that relation to the tree which 

 would in any way justify the supposition that they were the cause 

 of the disease. Another supposition has been that the disease is 

 similar to the smut in wheat, but is equally as unfounded as the 

 beetle theory, no fungi being discovered in the diseased parts, even 

 by the aid of a very powerful achromatic microscope. 



Dr. Aanzorg's theory is, that there is a deficiency of certain che- 

 mical substances in the soil, and his experiments appear to render 

 his supposition very probable. On the other hand, several planters 

 declare that the youngest suckers from a diseased stock grow up for 



