The several varieties of the edible plantain which are known and cultivated throughout the Mexico, Central and South America are all reducible to two classes, the Plantain and the Banana (_Musa Paradisiaca_and _sapientum_). The difference between these two plants is very minor. It is therefore most probable that there was originally but one stock, from which they have, by cultivation and change of locality, been derived. 

The plantain and its varieties invariably bear male, female and hermaphrodite flowers within the same spathe, all of them being imperfect and consequently unproductive of seed. At some point in time, the plants stopped producing seeds for reproduction and now must be propagated through cuttings. 

The banana, from time immemorial, has been the food of the philosophers and sages of the East, and almost all travelers throughout the tropics have described these plants exactly as they are known to us, either as sweet fruit eaten raw, or a vegetable roasted or boiled. It is remarkable that the plantain and banana should be indigenous, or at all events cultivated for ages both in the Old and New World. Numerous South American travelers describe some one of these plants as being indigenous articles of food among the natives, thus showing (if the plantain and its varieties be hybrids) a communication between the tropics of America, Asia and Africa, long before the time of Columbus. It appears that the plantain is either a hybrid, or its power of production from seed has been destroyed long ago by cultivation. 

The foliage of the plantain affords food and bedding, and is used for thatch, making paper, and basket making; and from its petioles is obtained a fine and durable thread. The tops of the young plants are eaten as a delicate vegetable; the fermented juice of the trunk produces wine. 

The bananas of the family of the Musaceæ, appear to be natives of the southern portion of the Asiatic continent (R. Brown, "Bot. of Congo," p. 51). Transplanted at an unknown time into the Indian Archipelago and Africa, they have spread also into Latin America, and in general into all intertropical countries, sometime before the arrival of Europeans. 

It is in the unripe state that it is most commonly used by the native population as  an article of food. It has always been believed to be highly nutritive. The fruit is dried and mashed into meal. Plantain meal is prepared by stripping off the husk of the plantain, slicing the core, and drying it the sun. When thoroughly dry it is powdered and sifted. It is largely employed as the food of infants, children, and invalids. 

Shortly after the colonization of the New World, forests were cleared and bananas and plantains were planted in mass throughout Central and South America. To this day, Bananas remain an important export item for many countries in Latin America.