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on the genus Pinus, has collected many valuable facts, which prove that it 
is found wild in several parts of America, and among others in Chili and 
Peru. Don José Pavon, in a letter to Mr. Lambert, says, * The 
Solanum tuberosum grows wild in the environs of Lima, and fourteen 
leagues from Lima on the coast; and I myself have found it in the 
kingdom of Chili,"—and Mr. L. adds, “ I have lately received from Mr. 
Pavon very fine wild specimens of Solanum tuberosum, collected by 
himself in Peru.” There is also a note from Mr. Lambert on the same 
subject, in the 3d vol. of the New Edin, Phil. Journ. with an extract 
from a letter of Mr. Caldcleugh, who sent tubers of the wild plant some 
years ago from Chili to the Horticultural Society. 
But it is frequently objected, that in some of those countries where the 
Potatoe is found wild, it may, like many other species met with in that 
state in America, be an introduced, not an indigenous plant. There are, 
however, many reasons for believing that it is really indigenous in Chili, 
and that the wild specimens found there haye not been accidentally 
Propagated from any cultivated variety. . In that country, it is generally 
found in steep rocky places, where it could never have been cultivated, 
and where its accidental introduction is almost impossible. It is very 
Common about Valparaiso, and I have noticed it along the coast for 
leagues to the northward of that port; how much farther it may 
extend north or south, I know not. It chiefly inhabits the cliffs and 
hills near the sea, and I do not recollect-to have seen it at more than 
two or three leagues from the coast. But there is one peculiarity in the 
wild plant that I have never seen noticed in print, that its flowers are 
always pure white, free from the purple tint so common in the cultivated 
varieties, and this I think is a strong evidence of its native origin, Another 
Proof may be drawn from the fact, that while it is often met with in 
mountainous places, remote from cultivated ground, it is not seen in the 
immediate neighbourhood of the fields and gardens where it is planted, 
unless a stream of water run through the ground, which may carry tubers 
j to uncultivated spots. Tiens FH ele, appe 
Having observed the distribution of this and other plants through the 
ageney of the streams employed for irrigating A: Pd 
think, that the wild specimens found near Lima, may have had similar origin. 
If they occurred in the valley, this is more than probable, as almost the 
Whole of the. land is either cultivated by irrigation, or the uncultivated 
Spots are overflowed when the river is swelled by the rains in the interior. 
I remember a curious instance of this sort of vegetable colonization. In 
the Vineyards of Chili, it is customary, in order to economize the land, ta 
sow Lucerne among the vines, to the great injury of the latter, as it pre- 
vents the ground from being ploughed or hoed. An intelligent land- 
owner who had travelled in France, and observed the beneficial effects 
* turning up and manuring the land, determined to adopt the same 
System in a large vineyard he was planting near Santiago, and gave orders 
