252 
PLANTAIN AND BANANA. 
The sweet bananas by many authors are referred to Musa Movies; 
and the vegetable-like fruits or plantains to M. paradisiaca, There are, 
however, no characters that can be clearly defined as separating the two. 
Roxburgh, who paid — P: — to bots the native an e cultivated 
and the same species. namely, Musa sapientum ; that their reduction 
toa single species is even confirmed by the multitude of varieties that 
exist; by nearly the whole of these varieties being destitute of seeds ; 
n ; 
Sir William Hooker (Bot. Mag. tab. 5402) states that the flowers 
of the bananas and plantains cultivated at Kew afford no character 
to eae them 
o question of ori n, A. de Candolle, pgs ud Bro s of 
Tiny that all iade. hitherto available poin “9, Mr 
existence in Asia a, and to a diffusion peius ei or even 
anterior to that of the human race.’ 
Alphonse de Candolle (Cult. Plants, pp. 306-308) discusses the 
origin and distribution of the banana as follows :— 
« The etae and wild character of the banana in Asia are incon- 
testaple fa There are several Sanskrit names. The Greeks, Latins, 
and abs vos mentioned it as a remarkable Indian fruit tree. Pliny 
speaks of it distinctly. He says that sus Greeks of the expedition of 
Alexander saw it in India, and he quotes the name pala which still 
persists in Malabar. Sages reposed pies its shade and ate of i 
ruit. Hence the botanical name Musa sapientum. Musa is from the 
Arabie mouz or mouwz, which we find as early as the thirteenth eei 
in Ebu Baithar. The specific name paradisiaca comes from the 
ridiculous hypothesis ag made the banana figure in the story of Eve 
and of Paradise.’ 
Again, “there is an immense number of varieties of the banana in 
the — of apes both on the islan ds and on the compre ghd the 
Archipelago, from | an epoch: impossible to realise ; it even specu 
formerly into the islands of the Pacific, and to the west coast of 
Africa; lastly, the varieties bore distinct names in the most separate 
Asiatic languages, such as Chinese, Sanskrit, and Malay.” 
The probable introduction to eastern tropical America is thus 
summed up :— 
“ The culture of the banana may be said to be recent in the greater 
part of America, for it dates but from little more than three centuries. 
Piso says positively that it was imported into Brazil, and has no 
Brazilian name. He does not say whence it came. Acco ing to 
Oviedo, the speci es was brought fo San Domingo from the Canaries. 
This fact and the silence of Hernandez, generally so accurate about the 
