Plant geography often occupies an important position in the study of ethnology, and it is not rare that studies of cultivated plants furnish the answers to certain questions of racial migration, cultural contact, etc. In such cases, it is obvious that care must be taken to ascertain whether such plant grows wild or whether it was introduced. In the present state of our scanty knowledge concerning the ethnic history of the Formosan aborigines, it may be useful to consider the original homes and migration routes of some of the Formosan cultivated plants that seem to have some relation to the ethnic history of Formosa. The present paper concerns the following plants:
(1) Artocarpus communis, (2) Pometia pinnata, (3) Semecarpus vernicifera, (4) Musa texitilis, (5) Acacia confusa, and (6) Dioscorea fasciculata. of these six kinds of cultivated plants, (1) to (4) are found cultivated by the Ami and Kuvalan tribes, inhabiting the plain on the eastern coast of Formosa. Plants, (5) and (6) are restricted to a narrow area occupied by the Paiwan tribe, S. Formosa.
It is believed that the ethnic groups of southern and eastern Formosa comprise a mixture of a number of tribes from various places, so that it is very difficult to pick out each single element. Upon examining the original localities of these cultivated plants, the writer is led to conclude that, at least, the following three routes of cultural migration from the south existed in the southern and eastern parts of Formosa.
1. That from the Batanes Islands to Botel Tobago (Kotosho), in which the Yami tribe is concerned.
2. That from somewhere in the Philippines to more than one centre on the eastern coast of Formosa, in which some groups of the Ami and Kuvalan tribes are concerned.
3. That from the northeastern coast of Luzon to the southern extremity of Formosa, in which a member of the Paiwan tribe is concerned.
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