THE POTATO S AFFORD 519 



Spaniards in tlie West Indies, wliere they grow fairly well in the mountainous 

 sections " and gave them to Ralei.i,ii and that Raleigh gave them a trial on his 

 Ireland farms as has been so conmionly stated. 



Notwithstanding the author's theory that Dralce liad obtained 

 Irish potatoes from tlie West Indies, he once more confuses them 

 with the Virginian openawk, inchided b}^ Heriot in his list of foods 

 of Roanoke Island, declaring that if any man is to be given credit 

 for the introduction of Irish potatoes into European agriculture, 

 the honor should go to Heriot rather than to Drake or Raleigh.^" 



THE rOTATO OF REAIJTY 



Writers on the origin of cultivated plants Avho for their informa- 

 tion depend upon the accounts of early travelers, missionaries, and 

 colonists are apt to be mistaken in their identification of species. 

 Many of these accounts, written by persons ignorant of botanical 

 relationships or the essential features by which genera and species 

 may be distinguished, give little indication of the true nature of the 

 plants they describe. Thus, as I have already shown, Heriot's ac- 

 count of the openauk, of which he described only the tubers and the 

 habitat, caused it to be confused for more than three centuries with 

 the potato. From the account of the botanist Kalm, who speaks of 

 its bean-like pods, we know at once that the plant belongs to the 

 Leguminosse. Even botanists have disputed for years the origin of 

 several well-known plants, including beans, peanuts, and squashes, 

 owing to the resemblance of certain species of the Old World to those 

 of America. 



TESTIMONY FROM PREinSTORIC T0:MBS 



Fortunately, for a knowledge of the economic plants of western 

 South America we do not have to turn to literature. Along the 

 arid desert which forms the Pacific coast of Peru end northern 

 Chile there is a succession of cemeteries in which mummies are 

 found accompanied not only by desiccated plants and plant prod- 

 ucts, but also, in many cases, by funeral vases of terra cotta, some 

 of which represent food staples and fruits of the ancient inhabi- 

 tants. Owing to the absence of rain in this region the soil remains 

 impregnated with sodium nitrate which has acted as a preservative 

 of organic material, so that even in ancient refuse heaps on the 

 surface as well as in the tombs, both vegetable and animal sub- 

 stances have been preserved in a remarkably perfect condition. 



'* It has been established without any doubt that Solanum. tuberosum did not grow in 

 the West Indies until the early part of the eighteenth century, wlicn it was cultivated 

 in the mountains of .lamaica from tubers imported from Ireland and I-anca«liire under 

 the name of Irish potatoes. 



'"Carrier, li.vman. The Beginnings of Agriculture in America, pp. SI and 84. 102-';. 



