NOTES. xlvii 



suavitate prsecellentior, quo sapientes Indorum vivunt. Eolimn alas aviura 

 imitatur, longitudine triura cubitorum, latitudine duum. Fructum cortice 

 mittit, admirabilem succi dulcedine ut uno quaternos satiet. Arbori nomen 

 falae porno ariena" The following is the result of the examination of my 

 learned friend ; " Amarasinha places the banana (musa) at the head of all 

 nutritive plants. Among the many Sanscrit names which he mentions, are, 

 varanabuscha, bhanuphala (sun fruit), and moko, whence the Arabic mauza. 

 Phala (pala) is fruit in general ; and it is therefore only by a misunderstand- 

 ing that it has been taken for the name of the plant. In Sanscrit varana 

 without buscha is not the name of the banana, although the abbreviation may 

 have belonged to the popular language. Varana would be iu Greek ouapej/a, 

 which is certainly not very far removed from ariena." (Compare Lassen, 

 ind. Alterthumskunde, Bd. i. S. 262 ; my Essai politique sur la Nouv. Espagne, 

 T. ii. 1827, p. 382 ; Relation hist. T. i. p. 491.) The chemical connection 

 of the nourishing amylum with saccharin was divined alike by Prosper Alpinus 

 and Abd-Allatif, since they sought to explain the origin of the banana by the 

 insertion of the sugar cane, or the sweet date fruit, into the root of the colo- 

 casia. (Abd-Allatif, Relation de 1'Egypte, traduit par Silvestre de Sacy, p. 28 

 and 105.) 



C 23 -) p. 156. Respecting this epoch, consult Wilhelm von Humboldt in 

 his work, iiber die Kawi-Sprache und die Verschiedenheit d.es menschlichen 

 Sprachbaues, Bd. i. S. ccl. and ccliv. ; Droysen, Gesch. Alexanders des Gr. 

 S. 547 ; and Hellenist. Staatensystem, S. 24. 

 C 833 ) p. 157. Dante, Inf. iv. 130. 



(- 34 ) p. 157- Compare Cuvier's assertions in the Biographic universelle, 

 T. ii. 1811, p. 458 (and unfortunately again repeated in the edition of 1843, 

 T. ii. p. 219), with Stahr's Aristotelia, Th. i. S. 15 and 108. 



P 5 ) p. 157. Cuvier, when engaged on the Life of Aristotle, believed that 

 the philosopher had accompanied Alexander to Egypt, " whence," he says, 

 "the Stagyrite must have brought back to Athens (01. 112, 2) all the mate- 

 rials for the Historia Animalium." Subsequently, in 1830, Cuvier aban- 

 doned this opinion ; for after more examination he remarked, " that the de- 

 scriptions of Egyptian animals were not taken from the life, but from notices 

 by Herodotus." (See also Cuvier, Histoire des sciences naturelles, publiee 

 par Magdcleine de Saint Agy, T. i. 1841, p. 136.) 



P 6 ) p. 157. Among these internal indications may be enumerated, the 

 statement of the perfect insulation of the Caspian ; the notice of the great 

 comet which appeared when Nicomachus was Archou, 01. 109, 4 (according 



