FRUITS AND VEGETABLES. 



physician of Augustus, nor the Muses, but is simply the Arahic 

 Muza, taste, signifying that the plantain is the relish of the palate 

 as Opium is the juice, Bark, the bark, par excellence. Muza itself 

 is referred by Lassen to Moko the Sanscrit for plantain. II um- 

 boldt states that Sanscrit books give two other names, viz. bhamiphala, 

 (sun fruit) and varana buscha ; and with reference to the ".arbori nomeu 

 palae, porno ariense" of Pliny, quotes from Lassen to the effect that " the 

 Komans mistook the word phala fruit, for the name of the tree, whilst 

 varana, changed in the mouth of the Greek to ourana, was transformed into 

 ariena. The Arabic mauza is probably from Moko, and bhanu seems to 

 approach banana." Pliny, copying from Theophrastus, says of the pala 

 tree, that its leaf resembles " the wing of a bird, being three cubits in 

 length, and two in breadth. It puts forth its fruit from the bark, a fruit 

 remarkable for the sweetness of its juice, a single one (branch ?) con- 

 taining enough to satisfy four persons." Again, that the sages of India live 

 upon its fruit, called ariena. There can be no doubt of the plantain 

 being meant. But Banana can scarcely come from bhanu, the Banana 

 being the M. sapientum of the West Indies. It has been thought by some 

 to be the " tree of life" of the garden (Trapddfta-ov fv *E8/ Paradisum 

 voluptatis) of Eden, and by others, who distinguish between the two, 

 " the tree of knowledge of good and evil." St. Pierre observes 

 that the violet cone at the end of a branch of plantains, with the 

 stigmas peering through like gleaming eyes, might well have suggested to 

 the guilty imagination of Eve the semblance of a serpent, tempting her 

 to pluck the forbidden fruit it bore, as an erect and golden crest. The 

 grape, shaddock, cherry, apple, and many other pleasant fruits, have 

 also been thought the " forbidden fruit ;" the last from the passage of 

 the Canticles, ch. viii. 5, " I awakened you under an apple tree ; 'twas 

 there your mother lost her innocence;" "as if," says Calmet, "Solomon 

 had here intended to speak of the fall of the first woman." Observing 

 parenthetically that the " tree of life" is probably one with " the tree of 

 knowledge of good and evil," it appears to the writer absurd to attempt 

 to identify it. Neither cherries, apples, figs, grapes, shaddocks, nor 

 plantains can confer immortality and omniscience; and if ever a tree is 

 found that can, there will probably be no place for it either in the system 

 of Linnaeus or of Jussieu. There are some very peculiar stories about 

 these figurative trees, for any who may choose to search for them. 

 The original habitat of the common plantain was probably from the 

 Valley of the Euphrates, along the whole of the Sub-Himalayan tract, 

 before the Deccan was joined to Asia by the formation of the alluvial 

 plain of Hindoostan. The succulent herbaceous stem of this plant, 

 crowned with large translucent green leaves, polished, parallel veined, 

 and arranged as in the palms, render it one of the most grateful objects 

 on which the eye can rest in the tropics, especially when in contrast with 

 other vegetable forms. Its golden fruit, in handsome clusters, each 

 a weight for a man, contain every element of animal nutrition, mixed 

 with fragrant principles in such proportion, that at once it possesses all 

 the wholesomencss and uncloying taste of the finest wheaten bread, and 

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