66 NOTES ON THE WILD POTATO. 



other two varieties escaped. It is obvious that the latter cir- 

 cumstance is precisely analogous to what occurs with our Eng- 

 lish varieties, wlien some sorts escape in some places, while other 

 sorts in the same places are diseased. 



Notwithstanding all the researches that have been made into 

 the origin of the truly wild potato, doubtful and contradictory evi- 

 dence still obscures its history. Not to notice the old rejected 

 statements on this subject, we find Meyen (Botanical Geography, 

 p. 312, Eng. ed.) giving as its native stations the whole western 

 side of South America, mentioning, that he himself found it 

 wild in two places on tlie Cordilleras of Peru and Chile ; and 

 adopting the evidence of the Spanish botanists, Ruiz and 

 Pavon, that it occurs wild on the mountain of Chancay ; but 

 pronouncing positively, as it would seem on the authority of 

 Humboldt, that it was not cultivated by the Mexicans before 

 the arrival of Europeans. It is not. however, absolutely certain 

 that the plants found by Meyen and the Spaniards were really 

 Avild ; Mr. Darwin obtained much better evidence upon the sub- 

 ject during the voyage of the Beagle. In latitude 45° S., on 

 the east coast of South America, there is a cluster of islands, 

 called by geographers the Chonos Archipelago. " The wild 

 potato," Mr. Darwin states, " grows on these islands in great 

 abundance, on the sandy, shelly soil near the sea-beach. The 

 tallest plant was four feet in height. The tubers were generally 

 small, but I found one of an oval shape, two inches in diameter : 

 they resembled in every respect, and had the same smell as Eng- 

 lish potatoes ; but when boiled they shrunk nmch, and were 

 Avatery and insipid, without any bitter taste. They are undoubt- 

 edly here indigenous ; they grow as far south, according to Mr. 

 Low, as lat. 50°, and are called Aquinas by the wild Indians of 

 that part ; the Chilotan Indians have a diflierent name for them. 

 Professor Henslow, who has examined the dried specimens 

 which I brought home, says that they are the same with those 

 described by Mr. Sabine, from Valparaiso, but that they form a 

 variety which by some botanists has been considered as spe- 

 cifically distinct. It is remarkable that the same plant should 

 be found on the sterile mountains of central Chile, where a drop 

 of rain does not fall for more than six months, and within the 

 damp forests of these southern islands." 



There can here be no mistake. A naturalist like Mr. Dar- 

 win could not but know potatoes when he saw them ; and the 

 whole history of their occurrence is exactly that of a wild plant. 

 It is, however, very certain that in Cliile itself the potato is 

 really wild, in the latitude of Valparaiso, for it is described under 

 the name of Maglia by Molina and others; and this potato, 

 sent to England by Mr. Caldcleugh in the year 1822, and grown 



