204 DCllMA, ITS PEOPLE AXD PRODUCTIOXS. 



Bavexala, Sonneraf. 



*E,. ilADAGASCAEiEXSis, SoDu. Occasionally cultivated by Europeans. 



The traveller's tree. 



An evergreen palm-like tree, all parts glabrous ; the trunk annulate. Leaves 

 distichous and crowded at the apex of the trunk. Fluirers large, whitish, sessile, 

 J-whorlcd at the base of the bract. Capsules 2 or 3-cornered, and 2 or 3 inches long, 

 tardily dehiscing into 3 woody valves. Seeds numerous, covered with a beautiful 

 azure, fibrous arillus. Alhiinien almost bony. 



llusA, Linnaus. 



*• JI. SAPiEXirM, L. Cultivated throughout Bui-ma and in Kamorta. 



31 paradisiaea. 

 M. siiriAErii, Runiph. 



Kurz is uncertain if the wild plantains of Kamorta belonged to this species or not, 

 as they were out of flower. 



M. EUBEA, Wall. Pegu. Martaban. 



M. coccixEA, Koxb. vol. i. p. 62.5. (P ). 



M. suPEEBA, Roxb. vol. i. p. 667. (P.). 



M. GLArcA, Eoxb. vol. i. p. 669. (P.). Pegu. 



Under the head of M. pariKlisiaea, Dr. Mason makes the following remarks : 

 " The plantain or banana, though a far less palatable fruit, holds the same place in 

 this country that the apple does in England and the United States. It is used as a 

 vcgetalile as well as an article for dessert, the great proportion being eaten with rice 

 and meat in the place of potatoes 



" Like the mango, the tree is indigenous, but the wild fruit is too full of seeds 

 to be eatable. The plantain and banana, which were formerly regarded as distinct, 

 are now considered by botanists as one species, but it embraces many varieties. I have 

 the Burmese names of 2.5 before me. ' The numerous varieties,' writes Yoight, ' we 

 have in vain tried to put in some order. The attempt made for this purpose in 

 Schultens apjicars to us to have only increased the confusion.' 



" The MdtuUa hemp, from which a fabric of the finest texture is prepared, is made 

 from the leaves of a species of plantain-tree, M. textilis. Another distinct species of this 

 genus grows wild in our jungles and is rather an ornamental plant, which is all that 

 it has to recommend it. Unlike the common plantain, it never throws up shoots from 

 its roots. The name of the plantain in Pali is Mauza, which is its Arabic name Mam 

 with a final vowel added to pronounce the last consonant, no woi'ds in Pali ending 

 in any consonant excepting n. I\ow if its Arabic name be so widely diffused, it seems 

 quite certain, that had the plant been known to the Hebrews, tlie Hebrew being 

 cognate with Arabic, it would have had a similar name. This fact is a sufficient 

 refutation of the conjectural interpretations of certain passages of Scripture that we 

 meet with from time to time. Tims, Loudolfs conjecture that dudaim (Mandrakes) 

 were the fruit of 3[usa paradisiaea (plantain-tree), which has been recently revived 

 in a modern work, cannot stand, on account of its name. For the same reason the 

 conjecture that the gi'apes which the spies brought from Canaan were plantains cannot 

 be sustained. The plantain seems a favourite plant to build fancies upon. Gesenius, 

 in defining teeiiah, the tig-tree, refers to Gen. iii. 7, ' where,' he says, ' the Fieus indica, 

 or Miisa paradisiaea, plantain-tree (Engl.), with veiy large leaves, seems to be meant.' 

 This is perfectly conjectural, and is wholly imsustained by the usage of the word, 

 as well as that it bears no resemblance to its Arabic name." 



It is commonly supposed that the Mandrake of the above passage is the Atropa 

 mandrae/ora (see Kitto's Cyclopipdia) ; but according to S. J. Hooker (Maout and 

 Decaisne's Botany, Trans, p. 580), the Maiidrar/ora has somewhat analogous pro- 

 perties to Belladonna, and was formerly used by sorcerers to produce delusions in their 

 dupes. The I)udaim or 'Mandrake'' of Scripture was, however, used as a simple 

 ' philtre,' just as over the entire East, the ' Salep ' is so esteemed, and there is no valid 

 reason why some species of Orehis, or root having similar reputed virtue, may not 



