788 ON THE VOLCANO OP TAAL, 



small floating lettuces of graceful form, and bright green color 

 sometimes tinged with pink. It floats in the water in rafts, the 

 plants being attached together by runners, and deriving their 

 noui-ishment by roots which hang free in the water. They say 

 that these are sometimes buried in the mud, but I have seen them 

 floating in great rafts quite free and in very deep water. They 

 are abundant in the lagoon, the Indians using them when boiled 

 as a food for pigs. Otherwise the plant is very acrid and 

 probably poisonous. In Java in still ponds where fish are bred, 

 the plant is grown to give them shade, but it increases with such 

 rapidity as to cover the surface and become a troublesome weed. 

 It is called the water soldier. 



SCITAMINE^. 



249. MusA SAPiENTOM, L. In Tagalo the native Indians call 

 it Platanus or Abaca, the latter name being especially applied to 

 the species from which the fibre known as Manila hemp is 

 obtained. I must be excused for quoting here in extenso the 

 somewhat lengthy remarks of De Candolle as to the origin of this 

 species, in order that I may add what little light and experience 

 I have gained in my Australian and Eastern travel. The subject 

 is of unusual interest to us in Australia, as we have undoubtedly 

 three indigenous species in this continent, one of which is not 

 distinguishable from Musa sapientum. The following quotation 

 is from " The Origin of Cultivated Plants," p. 304 : 



" Bananas were generally considered to be natives of Southern 

 Asia, and to have been carried into America by Europeans until 

 Humboldt threw doubts upon their purely Asiatic origin. In his 

 work on New Spain,* he quoted early authors who assert that 

 the banana was cultivated in America before the conquest. 



* Humb. Nouvelle Espagne, 1st Ed. II. p. 360. 



