STURTEVANT S NOTES ON EDIBLE PLANTS 377 



and red of color. There growes none in the Kingdom of Peru but are brought from the 

 Indies, as from Mexico, Guemavaca and other vallies. Upon the firme land and in some 

 islands there are great store of planes like unto thick groves." There is a tradition current 

 in Mexico, says Humboldt,' that the platans arton and the dominico varieties were culti- 

 vated long before the arrival of the Spaniards. Piso,.^ 1648, says the plant was imported 

 into Brazil and has no Brazilian name, but Lery,' 1578, says it is called paco. In Coltimbus' 

 fourth voy^e, at Costa Rica, in 1503, Las Casas * says " the country produced bananas, 

 plantains, pineapples, cocoanuts, and other fruit." According to Irving,' bananas were 

 likewise seen on Guatemala. In 1538, De Soto ^ saw plantains in Cuba. In 1565, Bensoni,' 

 in his History oj the New World says, " the plantain is a fruit much longer than it is broad, 

 and the little ones are much better than the large ones." In 1593, Hawkins ^ writes that 

 the best he has seen in Brazil is on an island called Placentia and these are " small and 

 roimd and green when they are ripe, whereas the others in ripening become yellow. Those 

 of the West Indies and Guj-nne are great, and one of them sufficient to satisfie a man." 

 In 159s, Captain Preston and Sommers ' had plantains brought them from Domirjca 

 Island, and the same year Captain Drake found great stores of them at Nombrede Dios. 

 Herrera,*" who wrote a General History of the Indies from 1492 to 1554, says, at Quito, 

 " the plantans have the relish of dry figs but eaten green their taste cannot be ascertained." 

 About 1800, Humboldt " ate the fruit of the dominico variety on the banks of the Amazon. 

 At the present time, says Hemdon,'^ plantanos, which is the general name of all kinds 

 of plantains of which last there are several species, are the most common fruit of the 

 Montana. The people eat them raw, roasted, boiled, baked and fried. At Santa 

 Barbara, California, they were growing in the mission gardens in 1793." 



M. simianim Kurz. 



From Malacca to the Sunda Islands. About 50 varieties of this species are under 

 cultivation and are called peesangs. It surpasses M. sapientum in deUcacy of flavor.'* 



Muscari racemosum Mill. Liliaceae. grape-hyacinth. 



Mediterranean and Caucasian region. The bulbs are eaten in Crete, Zacynthus and 

 Corcyra, as well as in Italy, according to Sprengel." 



> De CandoUe, h. Geog. Bot. 2:921. 1855. 



De Candolle, A. Geog. Bot. 2:924. 1855. 



Pickering, C. Chron. Hist. Pis. 663. 1879. 



Irving, W. Columbus 2: 34^. 1849. 



' Irving, W. Columbus 2:322. 1849. 



Pickering, C. Chron. Hist. Pis. 663. 1879. 



' Benzoni Hist. New World 1572. Hakl. Soc. Ed. 21:87. i857- 



' Hawkins, R. Voy. So. Seas 1593. Hakl. Soc. Ed. 50, 93. 1847. 



'Preston and Sommers 1595. Hakl. Voy. 4:62. 1904. 



" Herrera Hist. Amer. Stevens Trans. 5:61. 1740. 



"Humboldt, A. Polil. Essay New Spain 2:2^2. 181 1. 



" Hemdon, W. L., and Gibbon, L. Explor. Vail. Amaz. 86. 1854. 



" Vancouver, G. Voy. No. Pacific 4:401. 1801. 



"Van Deman U. S. D. A. Pom. Bui. 1:37. 1887. 



" Pickering, C. Chron. Hist. Pis. 351. 1879. 



