308 ORIGIN OF CULTIVATED PLANTS. 



the form of 3fusa sapientuT/i. Rumphius ^ describes a 

 wild variety with small fruits in the Philippine Isles. 

 Loureiro^ probably speaks of the same form by the 

 name M. seminifera agrestis, which he contrasts with if. 

 seminifera domestica, which is wild in Cochin-Ghina. 

 Blanco also mentions a wild banana in the Philippines/ 

 but his description is vague. Finlayson^ found the 

 banana wild in abundance in the little island of Pulo 

 XJbi at the southern extremity of Siam. Thwaites ^ saw 

 the variety M. sapientum in the rocky forests of the 

 centre of Ceylon, and does not hesitate to pronounce it 

 the original stock of the cultivated bananas. Sir Joseph 

 Hooker and Thomson"^ found it wild at Khasia. 



The facts are quite different in America. The wild 

 banana has been seen nowhere except in Barbados,^ but 

 here it is a tree of which the fruit does not ripen, and 

 which is, consequently, in all probability the result of 

 cultivated varieties of which the seed is not abundant. 

 Sloane's wild plantain ^ appears to be a plant very 

 different to the musa. The varieties which are supposed 

 to be possibly indigenous in America are only two, and 

 as a rule far fewer varieties are grown than in Asia. The 

 culture of the banana may be said to be recent in the 

 greater part of America, for it dates from but little more 

 than three centuries. Piso ^^ says positively that it was 

 imported into Brazil, and has no Brazilian name. He 

 does not say whence it came. We have seen that, 

 according to Oviedo, the species was brought to San 

 Domingo from the Canaries. This fact and the silence of 

 Hernandez, generally so accurate about the useful plants, 

 wild or cultivated, in Mexico, convince me that at the 

 time of the discovery of America the banana did not 

 exist in the whole of the eastern part of the continent. 



^ Eumphius, Amh., v. p. 139. ^ Loureiro, Fl. Cocli., p. 791. 



2 Loureiro, Fl. Coch., p. 791. * Blanco, Flora, 1st edit., p. 247. 

 5 Finlayson, Journey to Siam, 1826, p. 86, according to Hitter, Erdk., 

 iv. p. 878. 



'^ Thwaites, Enum. PI. Cey., p. 321. 



' Aitchison, Catal. of Punjab, p. 147. 



« Hughes, Barh., p. 182 ; Majcock, Fl. Barb., p. 396. 



' Sloane, Jamaica, ii. p. 148. ^° Piso, edit. 1648, Hist. Nat., p. 75. 



