Kankakee Valley Post, Volume 14, Number 21, DeMotte, Jasper County, 7 April 1944 — Bananas Long Known [ARTICLE]

Bananas Long Known

The Chinese literature of 3,000 years ago mentioned bananas. In 327 B. C., Alexander the Great found bananas growing in the valley of the Indus in India. Later, history records the crop’s further journey westward to East Africa, then to the Holy Land and northern Egypt. In 1482 the Portuguese found the fruit growing along the African west coast, where the natives gave it the name “banana.” At the time Columbus sailed on his voyage of discovery the banana was growing abundantly in the Canary Islands.