i6 FLORA OF THE 



not aware that its plant is shown anywhere on the 

 sculptures. We would expect to find on these records 

 of their feats only trees which were indigenous to 

 their own and surrounding countries, and which were 

 well known to their artists. Nevertheless I think the 

 fruit of the banana must have been known in Assyria, 

 much as we know it in London, although it does not 

 grow in our parks and orchards. The fruit (if it be 

 a banana) was evidently uncommon, and a fit thing for 

 the tables of the king and his courtiers. 



Prof De Candolle says the bananas {Alusa sapieiitum 

 and M. paradisiaca, Linn.), were generally considered 

 to be natives of S. Asia, and to have been carried to 

 America by Europeans, until Humboldt threw doubts 

 upon their purely Asiatic origin. He asserts that on 

 the banks of the Orinoco, in the midst of the thickest 

 forests, almost everywhere plantations of manioc and 

 bananas are found, although the Indian tribes had had 

 no relations with European settlements. He thought 

 that there must be some kinds of bananas which are 

 indigenous to America. 



Other authors, De Candolle continues, consider the 

 bananas of the Old and New World as belonging to 

 the same species, and divide them into large fruited 

 (7 to 15 inches long), and small fruited (i to 6 inches 

 long). Brown, moreover, states that no one pretends 

 to have found in America in a wild state varieties with 



