401 

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rivers, the sea, or high mountains. As long as the land is inclosed it 

 remains in his possession ; whenever the fence is decayed the land 

 again becomes the property of the republic." 



" The plantain is most extensively cultivated, and furnishes the 

 inhabitants with the chief portion of their food. The question whether 

 the plantain and its kindred are indigenous to the New World, or 

 whether they have been introduced, has hitherto formed a topic for 

 historians rather than for naturalists, and no satisfactory conclusion 

 has as yet been arrived at. Some incline to the former, others to the 

 latter opinion ; and again a third party thinks that while some spe- 

 cies are indigenous, others have been brought from foreign countries. 

 Robertson, following Wafer and Gumilla, classes the plantain among 

 the native productions of America. It was found by the latter two 

 authors far in the interior, and in the hands of Indian tribes who had 

 little or no communication with the Creoles. But as both Wafer and 

 Gumilla travelled a number of years after Columbus's discovery, and 

 as we know that many plants, even some less useful than the different 

 Musas, were disseminated with great rapidity over the territories of 

 the New World, the proofs appear insufficient. Prescott seems to 

 look upon the plantain as introduced, but thinks it is not mentioned 

 in the works of Hernandez. Yet Hernandez does mention the plan- 

 tain ; he even informs us that it was brought to Mexico from foreign 

 parts, and in his Hist. Plant. Nov. Hisp. Libr. vol. iii. p. 172, has the 

 following account : — ' Arbor est mediocris, familiaris calidis regioni- 

 bus hujus Novae Hispaniae, vocatur a quibusdam recentiorum Musa. 

 Folia sunt valde longa et lata, adeo ut hominis superent saepenumero 

 magnitudinem : fructus racematim dependent incredibili numero et 

 magnitudine, cucumerum crassorum et brevium forma, dulces, molles, 

 atque temperiei proximi, nee ingrati nutrimenti. Eduntur hi crudi, 

 assive ex vino, atque ita sunt gustui jucundigris. DiflTert fructus mag- 

 nitudine, et quo minores sunt, eo salubriores et suaviores. Advenam 

 esse aiunt huic Nova Hispatrice atque translatam ah JEAldopibus avt 

 Orientalibus Indiis, quorum est alumna. Caulis et radix, quae 

 fibrata est, multis constant membranis, saporis expertibus et odoris, 

 lubricis et frigescentibus, ex quo facile quis conjiciat, quibus morbis 

 possint esse utiles.' Conclusive as is this statement, both as regards 

 the identity of the plant, and its native country, still some may yet 

 entertain doubts, as Hernandez wrote not at the time of the discovery 

 of America, but towards the end of the sixteenth century. There is, 

 however, another proof that the plantain was introduced. Neither the 

 Quichua nor the Aztec, the two most refined and widely diffused of 

 VOL. IV. 3 r 



