sturtevant's notes on edible plants 373 



M. rosacea Jacq. banana. 



Tropical Asia. This is the vai of Cook, the fahie of Wilkes, the foe of the natives. 

 It was seen by Wilkes ' in groves in Tahiti, the fruit borne on an upright spike, of the 

 shape of the banana but twice as large and of a deep golden hue, with pulp of a dark orange 

 color. It is destitute of seeds, of high flavor and greatly esteemed by the natives. On 

 the Fiji Islands, it is found cultivated. The fruit is eaten either roasted or boiled. Ellis ^ 

 says there^ are nearly 20 kinds of wild bananas, very large and serviceable, in the moun- 

 tains of Tahiti. In India, says Firminger,' this species is called ram kela and, when in 

 good condition, is a remarkably fine fruit. The fruit is about seven inches long and rather 

 thin, at first of a very dark red, but ripening to a yellowish-red. 



M. sapientum Linn, adam's fig. banana, plantain. 



In general, says Humboldt,* the musa, known by every people in the Torrid Zone, 

 though hitherto never found in a wild state, has as great a variety of fruit as the apple 

 or pear. The names " plantain " and " banana " are very discriminately applied, but 

 the term plantain is usually restricted to the larger plants whose fruits are eaten cooked, 

 while the term banana is given to sorts whose fruits are eaten raw. The plantain, says 

 Forster,' varies almost ad infinitum, like our apple. At Tongatabu, says Captain Cook\ 

 they have 15 sorts of plantain. In Tenasserim, says Simmonds,^ there are 20 varieties, 

 in Ceylon 10 and in Burma 30. The Dacca plantain is 9 inches long. In Madagascar,. 

 the plantains are as large as a man's forearm. In the mountains of the Philippines, a 

 single btmch is said to be a load for a man. The banana is cultivated in more varieties 

 in India than is the plantain, says Roxburgh.' The plantain is abundant in Africa, 

 according to Burton * and other African travelers. In Peru, according to Herndon ' and 

 others, it abounds. One of the dainties of the Mosquito Indians, says Bancroft,'" is bis- 

 bire, the name given to plantains kept in leaves till putrid; it is eaten boiled. The plan- 

 tain is imquestionably of ancient culture, for one of the Mohammedan traditions is that 

 the leaves used for girdles by Adam and Eve were plantain leaves. Plantains with fruit 

 from 10 to 12 inches long were grown in Louisiana in 1855 and probably earlier. The 

 flesh was eaten roasted, fried or boiled. 



It seems probable that the plantain, or banana, was cultivated in South America 

 before the discovery by Colimibus. It seems indigenous to the hot regions of the Old 

 World and the New, or at any rate to have been present in the New World before the 

 discovery by Colimibus, as banana leaves are found in the huacas, or Peruvian tombs, 



Wilkes, C. U. S. Explor. Exped. 2:28. 1845. 

 = Ellis, W. Polyn. Research. i:y). 1833. 



Firminger, T. A. C. Card. Ind. 180. 1874. {M. rubra) 

 'Humboldt, A. Trar. 1:49. 1889. 



'Forster 06j. 177. 1778. 



Simmonds, P. L. Trap. Agr. ^62. 1889 

 'Roxburgh, W. Ph. Coram. Coast 3:74. 1819. 

 ' Burton, F. Lake Reg. Cent. Afr. 316. i860. 



' Herndon, W. L., and Gibbon, L. Explor. Vail. Amaz. 1:86. 1854. 

 ' Bancroft, H. H. Native Races 1:721. 1875. 



