BY THE REV. J. E. TENISON-WOODS, F.G.S., &C. 791 



Musa, for instance 'parurxi in Tamanac, &c., arata in Maypur. I 

 have also read in Stevenson's travels* that beds of the leaves of 

 the two bananas commonly cultivated in America have been found 

 in the haucas or Peruvian tombs anterior to the conquest ; but as 

 this traveller also says that ho saw beans in these huacas, a plant 

 which undoubtedly belongs to the old world — his assertions are 

 not very trustworthy. Boussingaultf thought that the lilatano 

 arton at least was of American origin, but he gives no proof. 

 Meyen, who had also been in America, adds no argument to those 

 which were already known,; nor does the geographer Ritter,§ who 

 simply reproduces the facts about America given by Humboldt. 



On the other hand, the botanists who have more recently visited 

 America have no hesitation as to the Asiatic origin. I may name 

 Seeman for the Isthmus of Panama, Ernst for Venezuela, and 

 Sagot for Guiana. 1 1 The two first insist on the absence of names 

 for the banana in the languages of Peru and Mexico. Piso knew 

 no Brazilian name. MartiusH has since indicated, in the Tupi 

 language of Brazil, the names facoha or hacoba This same word 

 hacove is used, according to Sagot, by the French in Guiana. It 

 is perhaps derived from the name hala or 'palan of Malabar, from 

 an introduction by the Portuguese subsequent to Piso's voyage. 



The antiquity and wild character of the banana in Asia are incon- 

 testable facts. There are several Sancrit names.** The Greeks, 

 Latins, and Arabs, have mentioned it as a remarkable Indian fruit 

 tree. Pliny ff speaks of it distinctly. He says that the Greeks 

 of the expedition of Alexander saw it in India, and he quotes the 

 name fcda which still persists in Malabar. Sages reposed beneath 

 its shade and ate its fruit. Hence the botanical name Musa 

 sapientum. Musa is from the Arabic tnouz or mauwz, which we 



* Stevenson, Trav. in S. Amer., I. p. 328. 

 t Poussingault, C. r. Acad. >Sc. Paris, May 9th, 1336. 

 t Meyeu, Pflanzen Geog. 1836, p. 383. 

 § Ritter, Erdk. IV. p. 870. 



II Seeman, Bot. of the Herald, p. 213 ; Ernst, in Seeman's Journ. of 

 Botany, 1867, p. 289 ; Sagot, Journ. de la Soc. d'hort. de Fr. 1872, p. 226. 

 IF Martins, Eth. SprachenkuncU Amer. p. 123. 



** Roxburgh and Wallich, Fl. Lid. II. p. 485 ; Piddington, Index. 

 tt Pliny, Hist lib. XII. cap. 6. 



