376 sturtevant's notes on edible plants 



the banana as growing in some of the valleys and in the osais of Siwah. Grant ' found the 

 plantain the staple ood of the countries one degree on either side of the equator. There 

 are half a dozen varieties, he says, the boiling, baking, drying, fruit and wine-maldng sorts. 

 The fruit dried, from Ugigi, is like a Normandy pippin; a variety when green and boiled is 

 an excellent vegetable, while another yields a wine resembling hock in flavor. Long * says, 

 in Uganda, this fruit grows wild in the greatest luxuriance. The tree is very large and the 

 watery matter contained in the stock serves the natives of Uganda for water, when they 

 cannot procure it elsewhere. The banana is scarcely ever eaten in the ripe state, save by 

 the females, who extract from it an unfermented and delicious liquor. Biuton ' says, in 

 certain parts about Lake Tanganyika, the banana is the staff of life and is apparently an 

 aboriginal of these latitudes. In the hilly countries, there are said to be about a dozen 

 varieties, and a single bunch forms a load for a man. It is found on the islands and on the 

 coast of Zanzibar and rarely in the mountains of Usagara. The best fruit is that grown by 

 the Arabs at Unyamyembe, but this is a poor specimen, coarse and insipid, stringy and full 

 of seeds. Upon the Tanganyika lake, there is a variety larger than the horse-plantain of 

 India, of which the skin is brick-reddish, in places inclined to a rusty brown, the pulp a 

 dull yellow and contains black seeds. The flavor is harsh, strong and drug-like. 



In 1526, Thomas Nicols,* writing of the " plantano " of the Canary Inlands, says 

 it " is like a cucumber and when it is ripe it is blacke and in eating more delicate than any 

 conserve." Oviedo,* 1516, says the banana was transplanted hence to the Island of 

 Hispaniola, but the Dominique variety, which is supposed to be the one, does not answer 

 to the description of Nicols. In the Cape Verde Islands, plantains are mentioned as 

 seen by Cavendish at S. Jago in 1 586 and also at Fogo Island. 



The leaves of the banana, according to Prescott,' have been frequently found in the 

 huacas of Peru, and plantains and bananas were brought to Pizarro on his visit to Tumbez 

 in 1527. Garcilasso de la Vega ' says that in the time of the Incas the banana, in the 

 warm and temperate regions, formed the base of the nourishment of the natives. He 

 describes the musa of the valley of the Andes; he distinguishes also the small, sweet and 

 aromatic dominico and the common banana or arton. Oviedo ' contends that it is not 

 indigenous to the New World but was introduced to Hispaniola in 1516 by Father Thomas 

 de Berlanger and that he transplanted it from the Canary Islands, whither the original 

 slips had been brought from the East Indies. Acosta ' says "it is the fruits they use 

 most at the Indies and in general in all places, although they say the first beginning comes 

 from Ethiopia." He also says " there is a kinde of small planes, white and very delicate, 

 which in Hispaniola they call dominiques. There are others which are stronger and bigger 



' Speke, J. H. Journ. Disc. Source Nile 533. 1864. 

 Long, C. C. Cent. Afr. 126. 1877. 



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



< Nicols, Thomas Foy. Hakl. Voy. 6:129. 1904. 

 'Robinson, W. Hist. Amer. 476. 1856. 



Prescott, W. H. Cong. Peru i:i29- i860. Note. 

 ' De CandoUe, A. Geog. Bot. 2:921. 1855. 



Robinson, W. Hist. Amer. 476. 1856. Note. 



Acosta Nat. Mor. Hist. Ind. Hakl. Soc. Ed. 1:243. 1880. 



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