Chapter PISHPASH to PLANTAIN of P by The Hobson Jobson Dictionary

Waller, Battle of the Summer Islands.

c. 1660.—

“The Plant (at Brasil Bacone call’d) the Name
Of the Eastern Plane-tree takes, but not the same:
Bears leaves so large, one single Leaf can shade
The Swain that is beneath her Covert laid;
Under whose verdant Leaves fair Apples grow,
Sometimes two Hundred on a single Bough. …”

Cowley, of Plants, Bk. v.

1664—

“Wake, Wake Quevera! Our soft rest must cease,
And fly together with our country’s peace.
No more must we sleep under plantain shade,
Which neither heat could pierce nor cold invade;
Where bounteous Nature never feels decay,
And opening buds drive falling fruits away.”

Dryden, Prologue to the Indian Queen.

1673.—“Lower than these, but with a Leaf far broader, stands the curious Plantan, loading its tender Body with a Fruit, whose clusters emulate the Grapes of Canaan, which burthened two men’s shoulders.”—Fryer, 19.

1686.—“The Plantain I take to be King of all Fruit, not except the Coco itself.”—Dampier, i. 311.

1689.—“… and now in the Governour’s Garden (at St. Helena) and some others of the Island are quantities of Plantins, Bonanoes, and other delightful Fruits brought from the East. …”—Ovington, 100.

1764.—

“But round the upland huts, bananas plant;
A wholesome nutriment bananas yield,
And sunburnt labour loves its breezy shade,
Their graceful screen let kindred plantanes join,
And with their broad vans shiver in the breeze.”

Grainger, Bk. iv.

1805.—“The plantain, in some of its kinds, supplies the place of bread.”—Orme, Fragments, 479.