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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 

 Pera. Don Jose 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. Caldcleiigh, who sent tubers of the wild plant some 

 years ago from Chili to the Hoilicultural 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 have not been accidentally 

 propagated from any cultivated vanety. In that country, it is generally 

 found in steep rocky places, where it could never have been cultivated, 

 and where its accidental iutrocJuction is almost impossible. It is very 

 common about Valparaiso, and I have noticed it along the coast for 

 fifteen 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 leagTies 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 

 to uncultivated spots. 



Having observed the distribution of this and other plants through the 

 agency of the streams employed for ii'rigating the land, I am led to 

 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 ove)"flowed 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, to 

 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 

 of turning up and manuring the land, determined to adopt the same 

 system in a lai'ge vineyard he was planting near Santiago, and gave orders 



