Note 86 — IDEAS FOR A PHYSIOGNOMY OF PLANTS.
Henry G. (Henry George) Bohn translation
305p. 224—“From the earliest infancy of human civilization.”
We find, as far as history and tradition extend, that the Banana has constantly been cultivated in all continents within the tropical zone. The fact of African slaves having, in the course of centuries, brought some varieties of the Banana fruit to America is as certain as that of the cultivation of this vegetable product by the natives of America prior to its discovery by Columbus. The Guaikeri Indians in Cumana assured us that on the coast of Paria, near the Golfo Triste, the Banana will occasionally produce germinating seeds, if the fruit be suffered to ripen on the stem. It is from this cause, that wild Bananas are occasionally found in the recesses of the forests, in consequence of the ripe seeds being scattered abroad by birds. At Bordones also, near Cumana, perfectly formed and matured seeds have been occasionally found in the fruit of the Banana.[OF]
I have already remarked, in another work,[OG] that Onesicritus and other companions of the great Macedonian, make no mention of high arborescent ferns, although they speak of the fan-leaved umbrella palms and of the tender evergreen verdure of the banana-plantations. Among the Sanscrit names given by Amarasinha for the Banana (the Musa of botanists) we find bhanu-phala (sun-fruit), varana-buscha, and moko. Phala signifies fruit generally. Lassen explains Pliny’s words (xii. 6), “Arbori nomen palæ, pomo arienæ,” to this effect, that “The Roman mistook the word pala, fruit, for the name of the tree, whilst varana, changed in the mouth of a Greek to ouarana, was transformed into ariena. The Arabic mauza, our Musa, may have been formed from moko. The Bhanu fruit seems to approach to Banana fruit.”[OH]