Yes, You Have New Bananas – Find Yourself in History

Bananas’ Origins in Indian Ocean

Dan Koeppel. Banana: The Fate of the Fruit That Changed the World (New York: Penguin Publishing Group, 2009) Kindle Edition, Chs. 3–7.
Xavier Perrier, Edmond De Langhe, Mark Donohue, Carol Lentfer, Luc Vrydaghs, Frédéric Bakry, Françoise Carreel, et al. “Multidisciplinary Perspectives on Banana (Musa Spp.) Domestication.” Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America 108, no. 28 (2011): 11311–18. http://www.jstor.org/stable/27978795.

Theophrastus’ Botany

Theophrastus, Enquiry into Plants and Minor Works on Odours and Weather Signs, Sir Arthur Hort, translator, Volume I (London: William Heinemann, 1916), 315. https://books.google.com/books?id=OuAW71tsKL0C.

Spanish account of the “Indian Fig Tree”

Cristoval Acosta, Tractado De Las Drogas y medicinas de las Indias Orientales, con sus Plantas debujadas al vivo por Cristóbal Acosta—Médico y cirujano que las vio ocularmente (Burgos: Martin de Victoria Impressor de Su Majestad, 1578), 73–77. The illustration is on p. 73. https://books.google.com/books?id=kZPdLqZuQyMC.

First Bananas in the Americas

For one early 16^th century mention of Tomás Berlanga’s role in bringing bananas to the Caribbean see Gonzalo Fernández de Oviedo, La Historia General de Las Indias (Madrid, 1535), p.174 of the PDF at Google Books: https://books.google.com/books?id=I9ykpasN_f8C .
See also Perrier, et al. (above) for maps of the earliest geographical ranges of the banana and Koeppel (above), 47 and Ch. 8 for both the Berlanga reference and for mention of the Polynesian sailor hypothesis.

English and French Caribbean

Charles de Rochefort, History of the Caribby-Islands, John Davies, Translator (London: J.M. for Thomas Dring and John Starkey, 1666), 51–53. https://books.google.com/books?id=ElUdzt_8FRwC

Climate Theories, Prejudice & Bananas

For Buffon’s understanding that warm climates make men idle and morally corruptt, see Georges Louis LeClerc, Comte de Buffon, A Natural History, General and Particular, Containing the History and Theory of the Earth, A General History of Man, The Brute Creation, Vegetables, Minerals &c., &c. (London: Richard Evans, 1817), 232. https://books.google.com/books?id=-ufdR0MwUu4C
“Timber Trees: Fruits” in The Library of Entertaining Knowledge, published by The Society For The Diffusion of Useful Knowledge (London: Charles Knight, 1829), 363–368. https://books.google.com/books?id=OwsbAAAAYAAJ
- The above source was so popular that it was reprinted in an abridged form in an article called “Fruits of Tropical Climates,” in The Polar Star of Entertainment and Popular Science (London: H. Flower, 1830), 372. https://books.google.com/books?id=rpUEAAAAQAAJ

Bananas in the New York Times

All of the following articles are available at https://timesmachine.nytimes.com/:
- “West Indies,” New York Times, April 1, 1852, 4.
- “Local Intelligence: The Tropical Fruit Trade,” New York Times, June 13, 1865, 2.
- “Tropical Fruits: Pine-Apples, Bananas, Oranges, Lemons, etc.—Where they Come From, the Quantity Brought, and Where They Go to,” New York Times, July 12, 1866, 8.

United Fruit Company

Koepell (cited above), Parts III, IV, V.
United Fruit Company, The Story of the Banana (Boston: United Fruit Company, 1921). https://books.google.com/books?id=jXQpAAAAYAAJ
There are many recent histories of the United Fruit Company. This basic narrative is readily available in any college-level textbook on Latin American history, histories of Central America, among other resources. See, e.g., recent books by Peter Chapman, James Martin, and Stacy May, among others.

Audio Resources

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