Miscellaneous. 213 
It is remarkable that the plantain and banana should be indigenous, 
or at all events have been cultivated for ages both in the old and new 
world. Numerous South American travellers describe some one of 
these plants as being indigenous articles of food among the natives, 
thus showing (if the plantain and its variety be hybrids) a communi- 
cation between the tropics of America, Asia and Africa long before 
the time of Columbus. The older writers on this colony consider the 
plantain to be a native. Thus Hartsinck in his ‘ History of Guiana,’ 
vol. i. p. 71, describes under the head of ‘‘ description of wild trees” 
the fruit of the plantain or wild banana tree as being eaten by the 
Indians roasted or ripe, &c., while the banana is under the descrip- 
tion of cultivated trees. Belin, ‘ Description Géographique de la 
Guyane, p. 49, in like manner describes the plantaine, or plantin, 
as being a food used by the Indians, &c. It is remarkable that Sir 
Robert Schomburgk likewise found a large species of edible plantain 
far in the interior. It appears to me to be quite clear therefore that 
the plantain is either a hybrid, or its power of procreation by seed 
has been destroyed long ago by cultivation, and that it is not known 
to exist anywhere in a perfect state; in either of which cases, any 
attempt to improve our present stock by the introduction of suckers 
from elsewhere must be totally futile. I need scarcely remark, that 
should the suppositions with regard to the hybridity of the plantain 
be incorrect, and that in certain localities to us at present unknown 
the plant matures its seed, the seedlings would require long cultiva- 
tion by repeated transplantation of suckers to deprive the fruit of its 
seed, or in other words, to render it edible. 
_If the proposed introduction of plantain suckers from Matanzas, 
Porto Rico, or other countries, be with the view of entirely substi- 
tuting them for our present stock, and thus getting rid of the disease, 
a very serious matter for consideration is presented to us, viz. Is the 
disease hereditary or owing to imperfection in the plant itself, or is 
it caused by unfit soil or imperfect tillage? If it be hereditary, then 
the only means left is totally to eradicate the present stock and to 
introduce a new one. If, on the other hand, the disease be one of 
locality, then the introduction of new plants would be merely expo- 
sing them to the same cause of destruction. ‘The cause of the disease 
has been considered by some to be a species of beetle, which destroys 
the root or finds its way into the body of the tree. This however 
is a conjecture totally unsupported by any facts, the minutest in- 
vestigation not disclosing the existence of any such animals in the 
diseased plantain tree, or at least in that relation to the tree which 
would in any way justify the supposition that they were the cause 
of the disease. Another supposition has been that the disease is 
similar to the smut in wheat, but is equally as unfounded as the 
beetle theory, no fungi being discovered in the diseased parts, even 
by the aid of a very powerful achromatic microscope, 
Dr. Aanzorg’s theory is, that there is a deficiency of certain che- 
mical substances in the soil, and his experiments appear to render 
his supposition very probable. On the other hand, several planters 
declare that the youngest suckers from a diseased stock grow up for 
