Page:Aspects of nature in different lands and different climates; with scientific elucidations (IA b29329668 0002).pdf/149

 *[Footnote: allusion to the tall arborescent ferns, speak of the fan-leaved umbrella palm, and of the delicate and always fresh verdure of the cultivated plantains or bananas. Among the Sanscrit names given by Amarasinha for the plantain or banana (the Musa of botanists) there are bhanu-phala (sun-fruit), varana-buscha, and moko. Phala signifies fruit in general. Lassen explains the words of Pliny (xii. 6), "arbori nomen palæ, pomo arienæ" thus: "The Roman mistook the word pala, fruit, for the name of the tree; and varana (in the mouth of a Greek ouarana) became transformed into ariena. The Arabic mauza may have been formed from moko, and hence our Musa. Bhanu-fruit is not far from banana-fruit." (Compare Lassen, Indische Alterthumskunde, Bd. i. S. 262, with my Essai politique sur la Nouvelle Espagne, T. ii. p. 382, and Rel. hist. T. i. p. 491.)]*