CHAPTER XXIII 



GENERAL REVIEW OF THE CULTIVATION OF 



SPECIES OF MUSA (BANANA AND PLANTAIN) 



THROUGHOUT THE TROPICS 



INDIA AND CEYLON 



HAVING considered the natural history, the cultivation, 

 the uses, and the commercial aspects of the banana from 

 experience in a British colony where the fruit is the 

 principal export, and where cultivation and methods of 

 transportation have reached a high state of perfection, 

 it remains to consider briefly the importance in tropical 

 countries generally of bananas and plantains, both for 

 home use and for export. 



The Kew Bulletin for August 1894 (a mine of information 

 on species and varieties of Musa), Dr. de Wildeman's 

 "Plantes Tropicales," Watt's " Dictionary of Economic 

 Products of India," and other works have been con- 

 sulted. 



A. de Candolle, in the "Origin of Cultivated Plants," 

 says : " The antiquity and wild character of the banana 

 in Asia are incontestable facts. There are several Sanskrit 

 names. The Greeks, Latins, and Arabs have mentioned 

 it as a remarkable Indian fruit tree. Pliny speaks of it 

 distinctly. He says that the Greeks of the expedition of 

 Alexander saw it in India, and he quotes the name pala 

 which still persists in Malabar. Sages reposed beneath its 

 shade and ate of its fruit. Hence the botanical name 

 Musa sapientum. Musa is from the Arabic mouz or 

 mawoz, which we find as early as the thirteenth century 

 ji Eba Baithar. The specific name paradisiaca comes 



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