142 HISTORICAL NOTES ON 



lie landed in 1519. Its first introduction into Europe was 

 probably by Oviedo, after whose return to Spain, in 1 520, it was 

 cultivated at IMalaga, and from thence sent out to different parts 

 of Europe. Clusius purchased some fresh roots in London in 1581, 

 to carry with him to Vienna. Since then, various attempts to turn 

 the Batata to account, have been made in Tuscany, in Lombardy, 

 at Rome, and in other parts of Italy ; but have all failed, either 

 from the ungenial climate or still more from the difficulty of 

 preserving the roots through the winter. The Marchese Ridolfi 

 is said more recently to have discovered a mode of treatment, by 

 which these obstacles may be in a great measure removed, and 

 to have given an account of it in the Acts of the Academy of 

 Georgofili of Florence. Yet the cultivation of the root is cer- 

 tainly not yet carried to any extent in Italy. 



In his note on the Jerusalem articlioke (Helianthus tuberosus) 

 Professor Targioni repeats the common tale of its being of 

 Brazilian origin and deriving its French name of Topiitamhonr 

 from that of the tribe of Indians occupying the district of 

 which it is supposed to be a native. But this assertion, 

 copied by one writer after another, appears to rest solely on 

 a dictum of Clusius, and certainly no traveller in the land 

 of the Topinambas has found anything approaching to 

 it in botanical affinity or in physiological constitution. It is a 

 hai-dy plant, introduced into Europe from the more temperate 

 regions of North America, and it is amongst the Helianthi of 

 that continent, and more especially of the Mexican dominions, 

 that its wild prototype must be sought for. It was carried from 

 France into Tuscany in the end of the 10th or the com- 

 mencement of the 17th centuries, and is now sparingly 

 cultivated there under the name of tortufi di cannn, or cane 

 truffles 



The Artichoke (Cynara Scolymus) is a mere cultivated variety of 

 the Cfl?'c?oo7t (Cynara Cardunculus), of which the still more reduced 

 wild form is common over Southern Europe and a portion of 

 Central Asia. What part of this wide district may have been its 

 original native country cannot well be now ascertained ; for, like 

 all thistles, it spreads with remarkable facility wherever it finds 

 a genial soil. Carried out from Europe to the gardens of 

 Buenos Ayres, and escaped from them over the country, it is said 

 to constitute that gigantic thistle of the Pampas so feelingly 

 described by Sir Francis Head; To the ancient Romans it was 

 only known in the shape of the Cardoon, cultivated as a culinai'v 



