x, c, 6 Teodoro: Philippine Bananas 381 
It is possible that man first appeared in the original home of the 
banana. The editor of the Journal of Heredity says: 3 
If man appeared in the Indo-Malayan region, as is widely believed at 
present, it seems natural to seek for the origin of the banana in the same 
region; and such a location for it is accepted by most botanists. 
It is presumed, however, that the banana cultivated for its 
roots began to produce better fruits by chance, as a result of 
asexual propagation. Subsequently, better fruits in time gave 
a pulp agreeable to the taste. At any rate, the attention of 
primitive people was early attracted to the banana, and it was 
brought into extensive cultivation. It is probable that the ba- 
nana was propagated from various seedless sports in times too 
remote for record, as the wild forms are commonly full of seeds. 
Following this the diffusion of the various more desirable 
varieties became so wide that attempts to determine the exact 
country which might be regarded as the original home of the 
different forms seems almost futile. Among botanists there is 
great divergence of opinion concerning this matter. 
0. F. Cook 4 says that the wild bananas and their botanical 
relatives are natives of the rocky slopes of the moist tropics. 
As a matter of fact the banana can be grown in both tropical 
and subtropical regions, and lately it has been cultivated even 
within the borders of the temperate regions. Some writers 
believe Asia to be its original home, while others claim that it 
originated in America. The idea of southern Asia as the native 
home of the bananas was considered doubtful by Humboldt, 
since in his work on New Spain 5 he had learned from early 
authors that the banana was cultivated in America before the 
conquest. Humboldt’s statement that “it is a constant tradition 
in Mexico and on the whole of the mainland that the platano 
arton, and the dominico were cultivated long before the Spanish 
conquest,” was critically upheld by Hernandez, since it is believed 
by most botanists that tradition cannot be accepted as the only 
proof that America is the native home of the banana. History is 
said to be at fault in this matter, and we can only hope to be 
enlightened by the early discoverers, who were present in the 
different epochs in which American agriculture was enriched by 
foreign products. In this connection we can only refer to a 
’Journ. Heredity 5 (1914) 273. 
4 Ann. Rep. Smithsonian Inst. Washington (1903) 481; fide, Journ. 
Heredity 5 (1914) 273. 
5 Humboldt, Nouvelle Espagne, 1st ed. 2: 360; fide De Candolle, Origin 
of Cult. Plants, 304. 
