470 APPENDIX. No. V. 



towai-ds determining the original country of several of the plants here enum&- 

 rated, especially of the Banana, the Papaw, tlie Capsicum, and Tobacco. 



The Banana is generally considered to be of Indian origin : Baron Hum- 

 boldt, however, has lately suggested * that several species of Musa may pos- 

 sibly be confounded under the names of Plantain and Banana ; and that part 

 of these species may be supposed to be indigenous to America. Hovr far the 

 general tradition said to obtain both in Mexico, and Terra Firma, as well as the 

 assertion of GarcUasso de la Vega respecting Peru, may establish the fact of the 

 Musa having been cultivated in the new continent before the arrival of the 

 Spaniards, t I do not mean at present to enquire. But in opposition to the 

 conjecture referred to, it may be advanced that there is no circumstance in the 

 structure of any of the states of the Banana or Plantain cultivated in India, 

 or the islands of equinoctial Asia, to prevent their being all considered as 

 merely varieties of one and the same species, namely Musa sapientum ; that 

 their reduction to a single species is even confinned by the multitude of varieties 

 that exist ;| by nearly the whole of these varieties being destitute of seeds; 

 and by the existence of a plant indigenous to the continent of India,§ pro- 

 ducing perfect seeds; from wliicb, therefore, all of them may be supposed to 

 have sprung. 



To these objections to the hypothesis of the plurality of species of the Banana, 

 may be added the argument referred to as contributing to establish its Asiatic 

 origin ; for we are already acquamtcd with at least five distinct species of 

 Musa in equinoctial Asia, while no other species has been found in America ; 

 nor does it appear that the varieties of Banana, cultivated in that continent, 

 may not equally be reduced to Musa sapientum as those of India : and lastly, 

 it is not even asserted that the types of any of those supposed species of 

 American Banana, gi-owing without cultivation, and producing perfect seeds, 

 have any where been found. || 



* Nouv. Espag. vol. 2, p. 360. 



+ Op. cit. p. 361. It may be observed, however, that this is not the opinion in every 

 part of the continent of South America, for with respect to Brazil, Marcgraf and Piso 

 assert that both the Banana and Plantain are considered as introduced plants, and the 

 latter apparently from Congo. {Marcg. p. 137, el Piso Hist. Nat. Bras. p. 154.) 



\ Musa sapientum, Rox. Coram, lab. 275. 



§ M. Desvaux, in a dissertation on the genus Musa [in Journ. de Bolanique appl. vol. 4, 



