But the greatest problem of all is the plantain or banana. ProfessorKuntze, an eminent German botanist, asks, "In what way was this plant"(a native of tropical Asia and Africa) "which cannot stand a voyagethrough the temperate zone, carried to America?" As he points out, theplant is seedless, it cannot be propagated by cuttings, neither has ita tuber which could be easily transported. Its root is tree-like. Totransport it special care would be required, nor could it stand a longtransit. The only way in which he can account for its appearance inAmerica is to suppose that it must have been transported by civilizedman at a time when the polar regions had a tropical climate! He adds,"a cultivated plant which does not possess seeds must have been underculture for a _very long period_ ... it is perhaps fair to infer thatthese plants were cultivated as early as the beginning of the Diluvialperiod." Why, it may be asked, should not this inference take us backto still earlier times, and where did the civilization necessary forthe plant's cultivation exist, or the climate and circumstancesrequisite for its transportation, unless there were at some time alink between the old world and the new?