PHYTOLACCA DECANDRA.. 
Poke. 
PLATE III. 
From the testimony of different writers it 
- appears, that the Phytolacca decandra is an inhab- 
itant not only of North America, but likewise of — 
the south of Europe from Portugal to Greece, and 
also of the Barbary states in Africa. Its origin 
is probably American, since I find that it was so 
considered in the time of Parkinson, who in his 
Theatrum Botanicum, published in 1640, de- 
nominates it “Solanum magnum Virginianum ru- 
brum.” This is one of the oldest accounts I find 
of it. Plukenet conjectures it may be the Cuechi- 
liz tomatl of Hernandez, but the description, like 
most others of that loose and superficial writer, 
are more promotive of obscurity than of knowledge, 
and it is not easy to draw from it any satisfactory 
evidence as to its Mexican origin. [Vote D.] 
