attributed to them the characteristic of producing, if 
eaten in excess, tertian fevers and dysentery with tenes- 
mus (Ruiz, 1952, I, 29). Describing the products of 
Lurin, near Lima, he mentioned again the ‘‘native cu- 
cumber.’’ He wrote that this shrub blossoms profusely 
and that the fruits are usually yellowish, whitish or spot- 
ted with murrey, violet and red; he repeats the state- 
ment about the presumed tendency of the fruit to pro- 
duce the diseases mentioned above, adding: ‘“‘this plant 
is propagated by the stems, because by the seeds it takes 
two years to produce fruit, after having been transplanted 
from the nursery in which they were sown’”’ (Ruiz, 1952, 
I, 58-54). 
Latcham reported that Solanum muricatum is culti- 
vated in the northern part of Chile; but he assumed that, 
because of the absence of an Araucanian name, the spe- 
cies had been introduced by the Incas (Latcham, 1986, 
214-216). 
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