28 On the Native Country of the Potato, &c. 



him. He informs me that it is cultivated in great abundance 

 in Chili by the Indians, particularly in the district called Ca- 

 ragua, whence its name. 



I beg leave to mention another communication, also from 

 Don Jose Pavon, relating to a substance which has been several 

 times sent from Spain, under the name of Spanish tinder, 

 resembling very much the Moxa of the Chinese. We never have 

 been able till now to ascertain the plant from which it is manu- 

 factured, which proves to be Echinops Strigosus. There are 

 three different sorts ; the first, Yesca de Espagna, or Amadou 

 d'Espagne, de Car do de lasflores (ex fioribus) ; the second, 

 Yesca de Espagna, or Amadou d'Espagne, de Cardo de los 

 hoga^ (ex foliis) ; the third, Yesca d'Espagna, or ximadou 

 d'Espagne de Cardo de las tallas (ex caulibus.) 



I take this opportunity of inserting another observation which 

 I have also received from Spain. 



The tree which produces the balsam of Peru, Myroxylon 

 Peruiferum, appears to be the same as Toluifera halsamum, 

 or that which yields Tolu balsam. The following account 

 of it is given by Don Hippolito Ruiz : " The balsam of 

 Quinquina is procured by incision at the beginning of spring, 

 when the showers are gentle, frequent, and short. It is 

 collected in bottles, where it keeps liquid for some years, 

 in which state it is called white liquid balsam; but when 

 the Indians deposit this liquid in mats or calabashes, which 

 is usually done in Carthagena, and in the mountains of 

 Tolu, after some time it condenses, hardens into resin, and 

 is then denominated dry white balsam of Tolu, by which 

 name it is known in the druggists' shops." Having ex- 

 amined the specimens of Toluifera balsamum, from the her- 

 barium of Sir Joseph Banks, I find them exactly the same as 

 Myroxylon Peruiferum, and which was sent to Linnaeus by 

 Mutis, as the plant producing the balsam of Peru. I have 

 lately received fine specimens in flower and fruit, and also a 

 specimen of the trunk of the tree with the bark on ; it is between 

 three and four inches in length and about three inches in dia- 

 meter, and was collected by the authors of the Flora Peruviana. 



