APPENDIX. Xo. V. 471 



That the Bananas now cuhivated in equinoctial Africa, come originally 

 from India, appears to me equally probable, though it may be allowed that 

 the Ensete of Bruce * is perhaps a distinct species of this genus, and indige- 

 nous only to Africa. 



The Papaxv (Carica papaya), from analogous reasoning, may be regarded 

 as of American origin ; there being several other decidedly distinct species 

 natives of that continent, while no species except the cultivated Papaw, nor 

 any plant nearly related to this singular genus, is known to exist either in Asia 

 or Africa But in tiie present case, the assistance derived from the argument 

 adduced, may perhaps be considered as unnecessary ; for the circumstance of 

 there being no Sanscrit name for so remarkable a plant as the Papaw,t is 

 nearly decisive of its not being Indigenous to India. And in the Malay 

 Islands, the opinion of the inhabitants, according to Rumphius, | is that it 

 was there introduced by the Portuguese. 



The same argument may be extended to Capsicum, of which all the known 

 species probably belong to the new continent ; for the only important exception 

 stated to this genus being wholly of American origin, namely C.Jrutescens, 



p. 1), has corae to the same conclusion respecting the original country of the cultivated 

 Banana, and also that its numerous varieties are reducible to one species. In this disser- 

 tation he takes a view of the floral envelope of Musa peculiar to himself. The periau- 

 thium in this geuus is generally described as consisting of two unequal divisions or lips. 

 Of these, one is divided at top into live, or more rarely into three segments, and 

 envelopes the other, ivhich is entire, of a different form and more petal-like texture. 

 The enveloping division M. Desvaux regards as the calyx, the inner as the corolla. It 

 seems very evident to me, however, that the deviation in Musa from the regular form 

 of a Monocotyledonous flower, consists in the confluence of the three divisions of the 

 outer series of the perianthiura, and in the cohesion, more or less intiniate, with these of 

 the two lateral divisions of the inner series; the third division of this series, analogous 

 to the labellum in the Orchidea;, being the inner lip of the flower. This view seems to 

 be established by the several modifications observable in the different species of Musa 

 itself, especially in M. suiierba of Roxburgh, {Plants of Coromand. 3, tab. 223) and in the 

 flower of Musa figured by Plumier, {Nov. gen. t. 34.), but still more by the irregularity 

 confined to the inner series in Strelitzia, and by the near approach to regularity, even in 

 this series, in Ravenala (or Urania), both of x^hich belong to the same natural order. 



* Travels, vol. 5, p. 36. 



+ Fleming in Asial. Reseer. ii. />. 161. t Herb. Amboin. i. p. 117. 



