PLANTS CULTIVATED FOE THEIR FRUITS. 307 



names. ^ The Greeks, Latins, and Arabs have mentioned 

 it as a remarkable Indian fruit tree. Pliny ^ speaks of 

 it distinctly. He says that the Greeks of the expedi- 

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

 name pala which still persists in Malabar. Sages re- 

 posed beneath its shade and ate of its fruit. Hence 

 the botanical name Musa sapientiiin. Musa is from the 

 Arabic onoiiz or maiivjz, which we find as early as the 

 thirteenth century in Ebn Baithar. The specific name 

 jxtradisiaca comes from the ridiculous hypothesis which 

 made the banana figure in the story of Eve and of 

 Paradise. 



It is a curious fact that the Hebrews and the ancient 

 Egyptians^ did not know this Indian plant. It is a 

 sign that it did not exist in India from a very remote 

 epoch, but was first a native of the Malay Archipelago. 



There is an immense number of varieties of the 

 banana in the south of Asia, both on the islands and on 

 the continent; the cultivation of these varieties dates 

 in India, in China, and in the archipelago, from an epoch 

 impossible to realize; it even spread formerly into the 

 islands of the Pacific "* and to the west coast of Africa ; ^ 

 lastly, the varieties bore distinct names in the most 

 separate Asiatic languages, such as Chinese, Sanskrit, 

 and Malay. All this indicates great antiquity of culture, 

 consequently a primitive existence in Asia, and a diffu- 

 sion contemporary with or even anterior to that of the 

 human races. 



The banana is said to have been found wild in several 

 places. This is the more worthy of attention since the 

 cultivated varieties seldom produce seed, and are 

 multiplied by division, so that the species can hardly 

 have become naturalized from cultivation by sowing itself 

 Roxburgh had seen it in the forests of Chittagong,^ in 



^ Eoxburgrh and Wallich, FI. Ind., ii. p. 485 ; Piddington, Index. 

 ' Pliny, Hist., lib. xii. cap. 6. 



^ Unger, uhi supra, and Wilkinson, ii. p. 403, do not mention it. The 

 banana is now cultivated in Egypt. 

 ■^ Forster, Plant. Esc, p. 28. 



5 Clusius, Exot., p. 229: Brown, Bot. Congo, p. 51. 

 ^ Roxburgh, Coram., tab. 275 ; Fl. Ind. 



