306 ORIGIN OF CULTIVATED PLANTS. 



says that the traveller Caldcleugh l found among the 

 Puris the tradition that a small species of banana was 

 cultivated on the borders of the Prato long before they 

 had any communications with the Portuguese. He adds 

 that words which are not borrowed ones are found in 

 American languages to distinguish the fruit of the Musa ; 

 for instance, paruru in Tamanac, etc., arata in Maypur. 

 I have also read in Stevenson's travels 2 that beds of 

 the leaves of the two bananas commonly cultivated in 

 America have been found in the huacas or Peruvian 

 tombs anterior to the conquest; but as this traveller 

 also says that he saw beans 3 in these huacas, a plant 

 which undoubtedly belongs to the old world, his asser- 

 tions are not very trustworthy. 



Boussingault 4 thought that the platano arton at 

 least was of American origin, but he gives no proof. 

 Meyen, who had also been in America, adds no argument 

 to those which were already known; 5 nor does the 

 geographer Hitter, 6 who simply reproduces the facts 

 about America, given by Huniboldt. 



On the other hand, the botanists who have more 

 recently visited America have no hesitation as to the 

 Asiatic origin. I may name Seemann for the Isthmus of 

 Panama, Ernst for Venezuela, and Sagot for Guiana. 7 

 The two first insist upon the absence of names for the 

 banana in the languages of Peru and Mexico. Piso 

 knew no Brazilian name. Martius 8 has since indicated, 

 in the Tupi language of Brazil, the names pacoba or 

 bacoba. This same word 'bacove is used, according to 

 Sagot, by the French in Guiana. It is perhaps derived 

 from the name bala, or palan, of Malabar, from an intro- 

 duction by the Portuguese, subsequent to Piso's voyage. 



The antiquity and wild character of the banana in 

 Asia are incontestable facts. There are several Sanskrit 



1 Caldclengh, Trav. in 8. Amer., 1825, i. p. 23. 



2 Stevenson, Trav. in 8. Amer., i. p. 328. 



* Ibid., p. 363. * Boussingault, C. r, Acad. Sc. Paris, May 9, 1836. 

 5 Meyen, Pflanzen Geog., 1836, p. 383. Hitter, Erdk., iv. p. 870. 



7 Seernann, Sot. of the Herald, p. 213 ; Ernst, in Seemann's Journ. 

 oJBot., 1867, p. 289; Sagot, Journ. de la Soc. d'Hort. de Fr., 1872, p. 226. 



8 Martius, Eth. Sprachenkunde Amer., p. 123. 



