198 ESSAYS. 
strengthened year after year by the behavior of the tubers, 
and by the close similarity of the herbage and flowers of the 
two plants, as they grew side by side; indeed, as the two 
patches were allowed to run together in a waste or neglected 
place, they have become in a measure confounded. Wishing 
to obtain an unmixed stock, I applied last autumn to Profes- 
sor J. M. Coulter of Hanover, Indiana, and received from 
him a good number of tubers from wild plants of the neigh- 
borhood, which will now be grown. Some of these were slen- 
der, some thicker and shorter, and a few were to all appearance 
identical with Jerusalem artichokes. If they were really all 
from one stock, as there is reason to believe, the question of 
the origin of /Helianthus tuberosus is wellnigh settled. 
We were now interested to know whether our Indians, at 
least those of the Mississippi Valley, where ZZ. doronicoides 
belongs, were known to cultivate these tubers or to use them 
for food. Recently a note in the “ American Agriculturist ” 
called attention to a sentence in Dr. Palfrey’s “ History of 
New England,” i. 27, stating that the Indians of that region 
raised, among other articles of food, ‘a species of Sunflower, 
whose esculent tuberous root resembled the artichoke in taste.” 
The venerable historian found himself at the moment unable 
to refer me to the sources of this statement; but as it was 
now certain that some record of the kind existed, I applied 
to Mr. Trumbull, who obligingly and promptly supplied the 
information required, and placed it at my disposal in the fol- 
lowing letter. 
Hartrorp, Conn., March 26, 1877. 
My pear Proressor Gray: I cannot refer you to the 
authority (totidem verbis) for Dr. Palfrey’s statement that 
the Indians of New England cultivated “a species of Sun- 
flower, whose esculent tuberous root resembled the artichoke 
in taste,” but there can be, I think, little doubt of the fact. 
The historical evidence that “ artischoki sub terra” were cul- 
tivated in Canada and in some parts of New England before 
the coming of Europeans is tolerably clear. The only ques- 
tion, if there be any, is as to species; and this does not appear 
to have been raised for more than half a century after the 
