ILLUSTRATIONS (16, 17). BAN AW A AITD MALVACEAE. 305 



(16) p. 224 "From the earliest infancy of hitman civilization" 



We find, as far as history and tradition ^extend, that the 

 Banana has constantly been cultivated in all continents within 

 the tropical zone. The fact of African slaves having, in the 

 course of centuries, brought some varieties of the Banana fruit 

 to America is as certain as that of the cultivation of this 

 vegetable product by the natives of America prior to its 

 discovery by Columbus. The Guaikeri Indians in Cumana 

 assured us that on the coast of Paria, near the Golfo Triste, 

 the Banana will occasionally produce germinating seeds, if 

 the fruit be suffered to ripen on the stem. It is from this 

 cause, that wild Bananas are occasionally found in the 

 recesses of the forests, in consequence of the ripe seeds being 

 scattered abroad by birds. At Bordones also, near Cumana, 

 perfectly formed and matured seeds have been occasionally 

 found in the fruit of the Banana.* 



I have already remarked, in another work,f that Onesi- 

 critus and other companions of the great Macedonian, make 

 no mention of high arborescent ferns, although they speak of 

 the fan-leaved umbrella palms and of the tender evorgreen 

 verdure of the banana-plantations. Among the Sanscrit 

 names given by Amarasinha for the Banana (the Musa of 

 botanists) we find bhanu-phala (sun-fruit), varana-buscha, 

 and moko. Phala signifies fruit generally. Lassen explains 

 Pliny's words (xii. 6), " Arbori nomen pake, porno arienae," 

 to this effect, that " The Koman mistook the word pala, 

 fruit, for the name of the tree, whilst varana, changed in 

 the mouth of a Greek to ouarana, was transformed into ariena. 

 The Arabic mauza, our Musa, may have been formed from 

 moko. The Bhanu fruit seems to approach to Banana fruit. " J 



(17) p. 224 " Form of the Malvacea." 



Larger forms of the Mallow appear, as soon as we have 

 crossed the Alps ; Lavatera arborea, near Nice and in Dal- 

 matia; and L. olbia, in Liguria. The dimensions of the 



* Compare my Essai sur la Geographic des Plantes, p. 29, and my 

 Relat. hist. t. i. pp. 104, 587, t. ii. pp. 355, 367. 



) Cosmos, vol. ii. p. 524 (Bohn's Edition). 



Compare Lassen, Indische Altcrthumskunde, bd. i. s. 262, with my 

 Essai politique sur la Nouvelle Esvagne, t. ii. p. 382, and RGlat. hist.. 

 t. i. p. 491. 



X 



