but rather as a garden vegetable than a field crop, and 
~ has extended into India, where it is making its way 
amongst the Natives under Hindoo, Bengali, and other 
native names. In Kathiawar, according to Watt (* Dict. 
of Economic Products of India ”’) it is boiled in milk, and 
considered by the natives to be a strengthening vegetable. 
Aitchison states that it is grown in gardens of Herat and 
Meshed under the Persian name of Seb-i-zamini-angrez. 
(Notes and Products of W. Affghan. and N.H. Persia in 
‘*Trans, Bot. Soc. Edinb.” vol. xviii.) 
It is very curious that the native country of a plant 
so well known in gardens and in a wild state throughout’ 
the length of the Central United States and in Canada, 
should have for upwards of 250 years been considered 
doubtful. This was owing mainly to the vague indica- 
tions of its origin given by the early authors, Brasil 
(following Bauhin) by Linnzeus in the *‘ Species Plantarum,” 
Canada by Parkinson, and by Linnaeus in his “ Hortus 
Cliffortianus,’ and Peru according to Hernandes. In 
De Candolle’s “ Geographie Botanique” (vol. ii. p. 983) 
it is referred to the list of *‘ Hspeces inconnues a l'état 
sauvage,’ and subsequently (p. 988) as ‘“ probably 
North America.’’ Even in the body of the third edition 
of his admirable ‘“ Origine des Plantes Cultivées ” (p. 34), 
published in 1886, he regards the question as unsettled; 
and in the additions and corrections cites Gray’s erroneous 
opinion that it is the Helianthus doronicoides, Torr. & Gr. 
And yet, though there have been no lack of indigenous 
specimens in European Herbaria, identical with the 
cultivated, no one seems to have thought of going to the 
Herbarium to solve the difficulty. 
In 1855 Asa Gray’s attention was drawn to the subject 
from having received some long narrow tubers, which he 
considered to be Helianthus doronicoides, Lamk., with the 
statement that it had been found to be good food for hogs. 
These were planted in the Cambridge (U.S.) Botanical 
Gardens, and were found to produce, after two or three 
years, thicker and shorter tubers, which, when cooked, 
resembled Jerusalem Artichokes in flavour, though coarser. 
This led Dr. Gray to conclude that H. doronicoides was 
most probably the original of H. tuberosus, an opinion which 
was strengthened by subsequent observations published in 
