ASSYRIAN MONUMENTS. 17 



fertile fruit, as has happened in Asia. Others con- 

 sider that the banana was introduced into Brazil from 

 the Congo. The assertions of Caldcleugh that the 

 banana was known to the American Indians before 

 communication with the Portuguese, and that its leaves 

 were found in Peruvian tombs, are vitiated by the state- 

 ment that he saw also beans in the tombs — a plant 

 which undoubtedly belongs to the Old World. 



Botanists unhesitatingly say that no real Indian names 

 for this plant exist in the languages of Peru and 

 Mexico. But, even if they did, it would, I think, be 

 no evidence that the banana was not introduced. For 

 in my studies of the oranges and lemons of India 

 and Ceylon, I found many undoubted Sanskrit or 

 Persian names attached to certain varieties of Citrus • 

 but they were mostly descriptive of some character in 

 the fruit, such as " full of seeds," " round as a moon," 

 and so forth, many of these Sanskrit-named fruits being 

 undoubtedly introduced. It is curious to trace the wander- 

 ings of a plant, but just as curious to trace the 

 wanderings and transformations of the names that stick 

 to it. 



Prof A. de Candolle says : — " The antiquity and wild 

 character of the banana in Asia are incontestable facts. 

 Its generic name Jllusa is from the Arabic Mouz} 



^ " Linnceus says he named it after Antonius Musa, the Physician ot 

 Augustus." — Nicholson's Diet, of Gardening. 



2 



