The Cayenne Pineapple—COLLINS 
7 
director of the museum stated that the dupli- 
cation of names had been published, al- 
though the term '*Mai Pouri” remains an un- 
supported name. 
The supporting evidence of the date of its 
introduction into France and the postulated 
date based on the offering of plants for sale 
by nurserymen in 1841, together with the 
statement that Gautier believed the two to be 
identical in 1850, leads us to conclude that 
the five plants collected by Perrottet in 1820 
represent the beginning of the Cayenne vari- 
ety in France. 
How did this variety get started in French 
Guiana? This question cannot now and per- 
haps may never be answered with certainty. 
The collection of five slips sent to France in 
1820 we believe to be of the variety now 
known as Cayenne. Some time after it reached 
France it was given the name it now bears. 
The name used by the French botanist in 
his report is somewhat confusing, since he 
calls it a new species of Ananas^ yet listed it as 
Bromelia, a closely related genus in the pine- 
apple family. However, Perrottet probably 
used the name given to him at the time he 
collected it. The name ''Mai Pouri,” by 
which this variety may have been known in 
French Guiana, probably followed the pattern 
of indicating the place from which it origin- 
ated when it first appeared in French Guiana. 
The quest of the origin of the Cayenne was 
then continued in a search for a geographical 
area or locality having the name "Mai Pouri." 
In Colombia, at the junction of the Tri- 
parro River with the Orinoco River, is a small 
village .called "Maipures." In this region, and 
in the watershed of the Venturari River in 
Venezuela, also a tributary of the Orinoco, 
lived the Maipure tribe of Indians. We now 
believe that the Cayenne pineapple originated 
in the interior region of Venezuela long occu- 
pied by the Maipure tribe of Indians, and that 
it was probably grown and used by them for 
a long period of time (Fig. 2). Velez (1946: 
427), who recently traveled through the upper 
Orinoco River basin, states that the Piaroa 
Indians have had under cultivation since time 
immemorial several pineapple varieties which 
yield large, well-flavored fruits. 
Another circumstance which may also have 
a connection with Maipure pineapple con- 
cerns the Esmeralda pineapple variety, grown 
in Mexico. This variety is very similar, if not 
identical, to the Cayenne variety. Esmeraldas 
is the name of a small village at the mouth of 
the Esmeraldas River in northern Ecuador, in 
South America. The Maipure pineapple 
could have been carried from Venezuela or 
Colombia into the Esmeraldas region of Ecua- 
dor and thence into Mexico, where it was 
given the name of the place from which it had 
most recently come. We have no indication 
that it was known as Maipure while being 
grown in Ecuador, but there is good evidence 
that the Esmeralda and the Cayenne are the 
same variety. 
How long had this variety been grown in 
the country of the Maipure Indians and why 
was it not found by Europeans at an earlier 
date? To the first question there is no definite 
answer. We suspect that the history of this 
variety may extend back into the antiquity of 
American civilizations along with such not- 
able plants as corn, tobacco, and potatoes. 
To the second question a logical answer is 
apparent. That area of South America is even 
today largely unexplored, partly because it has 
long been inhabited by Indians who have had 
little contact with outside people and because 
of the difficulty of travel in this little- 
frequented and still primitive area. The 
Maipure Indians, who at one time roamed 
over this area, no longer exist as a distinct 
ethnic group. 
Sir Walter Raleigh, who conducted an ex- 
pedition in 1595 up the Orinoco River for 
about 200 miles, reported having received 
quantities of pineapples from the Indians in 
the deep interior of the country. The village 
of Maipure on the Orinoco River is at the 
place now marked on maps as the head of 
navigation. This is some 200 miles farther up 
the Orinoco than the place reached by Ra- 
