158 A NEW THEORY OF EVOLUTION. 



roots ? This does seem extremely improb- 

 able. 



" The cultivated banana produces, it must 

 be remembered, no seed, and therefore can 

 only be propagated by dividing the roots. 

 Each year the banana, which in the botani- 

 cal system is not far off the Orchid group, 

 sends up, like an orchid, a fresh stem from 

 a new root, while the old one, after flower- 

 ing and fruiting, dies. Did the Arabs in- 

 troduce the cultivated banana from Eastern 

 Asia into Eastern Africa as they did into 

 Egypt ? 



" If so, they could only have done this 

 even if they did it before the Islamic period 

 as far back as about 2000 years ago. 



" If this was the means of its introduc- 

 tion into tropical Africa, then in that rela- 

 tively short period it has spread over all 

 the tropical regions of the continent as a 

 cultivated plant. 



" Of course I am fully aware that several 

 wild species of Musa are indigenous to Africa, 

 as others are to Madagascar. Is it quite 

 impossible that none of the indigenous 

 species of Musa could have originated the 

 cultivated form of the African banana ? 

 The fruit of all these wild species differ 

 from the cultivated fruit very markedly 



