Brown remarks on the question of origin that all the other species of the genus _Musa_ belong to the old world; that no one pretends to have found in America, in a wild state, varieties with fertile fruit, as has happened in Asia; lastly, that Piso and Marcgraf considered that the banana was introduced into Brazil from Congo. In spite of the force of these three arguments, Humboldt, in his second edition of his essay upon New Spain (ii. p. 397), does not entirely renounce his opinion. He says that the traveller Caldcleugh[1520] found among the Puris the tradition that a small species of banana was cultivated on the borders of the Prato long before they had any communications with the Portuguese. He adds that words which are not borrowed ones are found in American languages to distinguish the fruit of the _Musa_; for instance, _paruru_ in Tamanac, etc., _arata_ in Maypur. I have also read in Stevenson’s travels[1521] that beds of the leaves of the two bananas commonly cultivated in America have been found in the _huacas_ or Peruvian tombs anterior to the conquest; but as this traveller also says that he saw beans[1522] in these _huacas_, a plant which undoubtedly belongs to the old world, his assertions are not very trustworthy. Boussingault[1523] thought that the _platano arton_ at least was of American origin, but he gives no proof. Meyen, who had also been in America, adds no argument to those which were already known;[1524] nor does the geographer Ritter,[1525] who simply reproduces the facts about America, given by Humboldt. On the other hand, the botanists who have more recently visited America have no hesitation as to the Asiatic origin. I may name Seemann for the Isthmus of Panama, Ernst for Venezuela, and Sagot for Guiana.[1526] The two first insist upon the absence of names for the banana in the languages of Peru and Mexico. Piso knew no Brazilian name. Martius[1527] has since indicated, in the Tupi language of Brazil, the names _pacoba_ or _bacoba_. This same word _bacove_ is used, according to Sagot, by the French in Guiana. It is perhaps derived from the name _bala_, or _palan_, of Malabar, from an introduction by the Portuguese, subsequent to Piso’s voyage. The antiquity and wild character of the banana in Asia are incontestable facts. There are several Sanskrit names.[1528] The Greeks, Latins, and Arabs have mentioned it as a remarkable Indian fruit tree. Pliny[1529] speaks of it distinctly. He says that the Greeks of the expedition of Alexander saw it in India, and he quotes the name _pala_ which still persists in Malabar. Sages reposed beneath its shade and ate of its fruit. Hence the botanical name _Musa sapientum_. _Musa_ is from the Arabic _mouz_ or _mauwz_, which we find as early as the thirteenth century in Ebn Baithar. The specific name _paradisiaca_ comes from the ridiculous hypothesis which made the banana figure in the story of Eve and of Paradise.