Show M banana employed by the serpent in eden early inhabitants ot the east believed that the banana plant was the source of good and evil and that the serpent which tempted eve hid in a bunch ot the fruit according to W pope of the cawall experiment station of the united states depart ment of agriculture undoubtedly this legend influenced the early classifiers who designated two species of the plant as musa par adislada adis laca fruit of paradise and musj fruit of knowledge the sap lentum adopted was common name banana the language of an african con tribe and first came into use dur go prior to ang the sixteenth century that time the fruit wn called apple of paradise and adam a fig the name banana beems to nave been borne for a long period by the which wa eaten raw the term plantain was aven to a variety which though closely related to the banana ts edible only after being cooked the generic name mua or the banana groop was bestowed by the botanist linnaeus in honor of an toflus musa a learned physician of the early roman empire chicago journal |