Page:Miscellaneousbot01brow.djvu/174

 156 BOTANY OF CONGO.

Banana or Plantain, the Lime, the Orange, the Tamarind, and the Sugar Cane, may l)e considered as of Asiatic origin.

In a former part of this essay, I have suggested that a careful investigation of the geographical distribution of genera might in some cases lead to the determination of the native country of plants at present generally dispersed. The value of the assistance to be derived from the source referred to, would amount to this; that, in doubtful cases, where other arguments were equal, it would appear more pi'obable that the plant in question should belong to that country in which all the other species of the same genus were found decidedly indigenous, than to that where it was the only species of the genus known to exist. It seems to me that this reason- 470] ing may be applied with advantage towards determining the original country of several of the plants here enumerated, especially of the Banana, the Papaw, the Capsicum, and Tobacco.

The Bcmana is generally considered to be of Indian origin: Baron Humboldt, however, has lately suggested^ that several species of Mf/sa may possibly be confounded under the names of Plantain and Banana; and that part of these species may be supposed to be indigenous to America. How far the general tradition said to obtain both in Mexico, and Terra Pirma, as well as the assertion of Garcilasso de la Vega respecting Peru, may establish the fact of the iMusa having been cultivated in the new continent before the arrival of the Spaniards," I do not mean at present to inquire. But in opposition to the conjecture referred to, it may be advanced that there is no circumstance in the structure of any of the states of the Banana or Plantain cultivated in Indi^i, or the islands of equinoctial Asia, to prevent their beiug all considered as merely varieties of one and the same species, namely, Musa sajnentum; that their

^ Nouv. Espag. vol. 2, p. 360.

2 Op. cit., p. 361. It may be observed, liowever, that this is not the opinion in every part of the continent of South America, for with respect to Erazil, Marcgraf and Piso assert that both the Banana and Plantain are considered as introduced plants, and the latter apparently from Congo. {Murcg. p. 137, et Piso Hist. Kat, Bras. p. 154.)

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