794r ON THE VOLCANO OF TAAL, 



would not have been forgotten in a few villages in the depths of 

 the forest or upon the littoral. 



I admit that the opinion of Garcilasso, descendant of the 

 Incas, an author who lived from 1530 to i568, has a certain 

 importance when he says the natives kn(}w the banana before the 

 conquest. However, the expressions of another writer extremely 

 worthy of attention, Joseph Acosta, who had been in Peru, and 

 whom Humboldt quotes in support of Garcilasso, inclioe me to 

 adopt the contrary opinion.* He says " the reason the Spaniards 

 •call it ^;^««(? (for the natives had no such name) was that, as in 

 the case of their trees, they found some resemblance between 

 them."! He goes on to show how different was the jjlane 

 ( Platanus) of the ancients. He describes the banana very well, 

 and adds that the tree is very common in the Indies {i.e. 

 America), "although they (the Indians) say its origin is Ethiopia, 

 . . There is a small white species of plantain (banana), very 

 delicate, which is called the Espagnollej doininico. There are 

 others coarser and larger, and of a red colour. There are none in 

 Peru, but they are imported thither from the Indies,§ as into 

 Mexico from Cueruavaca and the other valleys. On the conti- 

 nent and in some of the islands there are great plantations of 

 them which form dense thickets." Surely it is not thus that the 

 author would express himself were he writing of a fruit tree of 

 American origin. He would quote American names and customs; 

 above all, he would not say that the natives regarded it as a plant 

 of foreign origin. Its diffusion in the warm regions of Mexico 



* Humboldt quotes the Spanish edition of 1608. The first edition is of 

 1591. I have only been able to consult the French translation (1598), 

 which is apparently accurate. 



+ Acosta, trans, lib. IV. cap. 21. 



t That is probably Hispaniola or San Domingo ; for if he had meant the 

 Spanish language it would have been translated by castillan, and without 

 the capital letter, 



§ This is probably a misprint for Andes, for the word Indies has no 

 sense. The work says (p. 166) that pineapples do not grow in Peru, but 

 that they are brought thither from the Andes, and (p. 173) that the cacoa 

 comes from the Andes. It seems to have meant hot regions. The word 

 Andes has since been appHed to the chain of mountains by a strange and 

 unfortunate transfer. 



