1678 Van Rheede & ‘Hortus Indicus Malabaricus’

Between 1678 and 1693 Van Rheede tot Draakestein published ‘Hortus Indicus Malabaricus’, a book on the medicinal plants of a Dutch colony in SE India.

As was customary in this period, people were much interested in local medicines to help keeping the inhabitants of the new colony healthy, and especially for the long journey back home. In volume 11 of 1692 we find Canna indica listed as ‘Katu bala’ which means wild Musa.

On t. 43 Van Rheede tot Draakestein mentions that the plant is called ‘figueira de mato’ by the Portuguese (meaning ‘fig tree from the woods’), but because he also added that several of ‘these species’ were cultivated in Holland, it is doubtful whether this concerns a wild plant.