PLANTS CULTIVATED FOR THEIR FRUITS. 311 



of the species in both hemispheres. The whole of geo- 

 graphical botany renders the latter hypothesis improbable, 

 I might almost say impossible, to admit, especially in a 

 genus which is not divided between the two worlds. 



In conclusion, I would call attention to the remarkable 

 way in which the distribution of varieties favours the 

 opinion of a single species — an opinion adopted, purely 

 from the botanical point of view, by Roxburgh, Desvaux, 

 and E,. Brown. If there were two or three species, one 

 would probably be represented by the varieties suspected 

 to be of American orioin, the other would belono- for 

 instance, to the Malay Archipelago or to China, and the 

 third to India. On the contrary all the varieties are 

 geographically intermixed, and the two which are most 

 widely difiused in America differ sensibly the one from 

 the other, and each is confounded with or approaches 

 very nearly to Asiatic varieties. 



Pine- Apple — Ananassa sativa, Lindley; Bromelia 

 Ananas, Linnaeus. 



In spite of the doubts of a few writers, the pine- 

 apple must be an American plant, early introduced by 

 Europeans into Asia and Africa. 



Nana was the Brazilian name,-^ which the Portuguese 

 turned into ananas. The Spanish called it spinas, because 

 the shape resembles the fruit of a species of pine.^ All 

 early writers on America mention it.^ Hernandez says 

 that the pine-apple grows in the warm regions of Haiti 

 and Mexico. He mentions a Mexican name, onatzatli. A 

 pine-apple was brought to Charles V., who mistrusted it, 

 and would not taste it. 



The works of the Greeks, Eomans, and Arabs make no 

 allusion to this species, which was evidently introduced 

 into the old world after the discovery of America. 

 Rheede * in the seventeenth century was persuaded of 

 this ; but Rumphius ^ disputed it later, because he said 



^ Marcgraf, BrasiL, p. 33. 



^ Oviedo, Eanmsio's trans., iii. p. 113 ; Jos. Acosta, Hist. Nat. des. 

 Indes, French trans., p. 166. 



^ Thevet, Piso, etc. ; Hernandez, Thes., p. 341. 



* Rheede, Hort. Malah., xi. p. 6. * Enmphins, Amhcvn, v. p. 228. 



