2 THE SWEDT potato. 



writer has briefly stated below De Candolle 's princi- 

 pal arguments, with a few additional ones. 



The contention that the sweet potato is of Asiatic 

 origin is based upon the following facts : 



1. D'Hervey, Saint Denis (Rech. sur I'Agri- 

 culture des Chin., 1850, p. 109) states that the 

 Chinese Encyclop. of Agric. speaks of the sweet 

 potato and mentions different varieties long before 

 the discovery of America. 



2. Piddington (Index) claims that the sweet 

 potato has the Sanskrit name ^'ruktalu." 



3. Cook, on his first voyage around the world in 

 1769, found sweet potatoes cultivated at Tahiti, and 

 in 1770 large plantations of them in New Zealand. 

 (Low, Cook's Three Voyages Around the World, 

 pp. 45, 76). 



Forster (De Plantis Esculentis, p. 56) in 1783 

 describes Convolvulus clirysorhyzus as being culti- 

 vated there, which Hooker (Handbook of N. Z. 

 Flora) identifies as the sweet potato. 



Pickering (Chron. Hist, year 1273) states that he 

 saw varieties unknown in America cultivated on 

 Metia, Tahiti, the Hawaiian, Samoan, and Tonga 

 Islands. 



The contention that the sweet potato is of Ameri- 

 can origin rests on the following: 



1. Columbus found it in Cuba on his first voyage 

 (F. Columbus, 28; Gomara, 16). 



2. No reliable reference to the sweet potato, dated 

 prior to 1492, has been discovered, as 



(a) No reference exists which is accompanied 

 by an accurate description. 



(b) The existing references may as well apply 

 to the yam as to the sweet potato. 



(c) The sweet potato mentioned in the Chinese 



